Global Reporting Initiative

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Review Concepts:

Definition of TBL and SD:

TBL or Triple Bottom Line also known as 3BL is associated with three main parts- Social,
Environmental and Financial. A few organisations have adoptee the TBL framework to
discuss the work and the performance in a broad way to increase the business value system.
In traditional business, bottom line refers to be either profit or loss of the company From last
50 years the environmentalist is trying to get the justice with the help of social justice
advocates to make a broader definition of bottom line into public consciousness (Ahi and
Searcy, 2015). The concept of TBL meets the demands that a company’s responsibility is to
stay with stakeholders not with the share holders. The triple Bottom line is consisted of social
equity, economic and environmental factor. The phrase 3p or People, Planet and profit
describes the triple bottom line and the goal of sustainable development.

Sustainable development is the idea that refers to the system makes the process of
development and make sure that the environment is not getting harmed. There are four basic
steps need to be followed while working on the idea of sustainable development (Bebbington,
Unerman & O'Dwyer, 2014). These are:

1. Environmental: The concept of sustainable development works in the ecology or

on the environment where we reside. The basic idea are comprises of the basic
elements of nature- water, air, and sol, these should not get harmed in any respect. It
also includes the human ecology took the ethics to govern humanity and are of
primary importance. Sustainable agriculture also plays an important role and an
important element to be included in the sustainable development. It refers to the
indulging of environmental practices like mixed farming, agro forestry, multiple
cropping, etc
2. Political: To make the indicator of sustainable development, the idea of politics
comes into the play, which is affecting the practice of public policy making. The
scientific reasons make the aid o measuring the efficiency of the policies of public by
developing metrics for the sustainable development.
3. Economical: To provide better facilities to human beings, new ideas were being
introduced to take care of the nature economically and efficiently. Actually, the
ecological factors are affecting directly over humans and on the society, which make
 the retardation of the growth. The factors that responsible according to ecological
aspects and needed to be added in the factors of sustainable development are:
i) Environmental economics
ii) Manufacturing
iii) Technology
iv) Energy
v) Transport
vi) Business
vii) Income
viii) Architecture

Importance of TBL over traditional Economic bottom line:

Economic variables deal with the bottom line along with the flow of money. It may affect on
the expenditures, taxes, business diversity factors. Few categories, which may get affected
after the changes in the economic bottom line, are:

1. Economic: The economic credentials are counted based on managed and calculated
tax; it is totally abide by the government rules. It is calculate based on the total
amount of tax and services to be paid to the government of any country in a financial
year. The amount of taxes reflects the aspects of sustainable development socially.
2. Environmental: The environmental aspects are made according to the sustainable
development and are calculated by collecting the data on the natural resources and
according to the pattern of usage. According to the reports the amount of resources
being taken for the project purpose are being counted on the sustainable development
and it is being reported that the officials are taking report of the resources being
wasted or the resources being used in the development by the constructor.
3. Social: The social aspects of the lifestyle are to be a part of the social community. By
analysing the social conditions of the country it can be calculated and to make some
determination on small scale of a community. The basic structure that affect the social
conditions are the indexes of salaries, welfare, it also includes the data and
conclusions. The social development are totally dependent on the basis of skilled jobs
and also for the authority to take care of the employees and ensure the work of
policies are same for all.
4. Food : Food is categorised as the most important aspect of the sustainable
development and the factors that are considered as the security to maintain the
community and to make sure that all the food that are provided are enough to all. In
case the needs are insufficient, it may be considered as the situation of lack of food
and security that’s an important parameter of famine.
5. Agriculture: The idea of sustainable development is indirectly dependent on the
matter of agriculture, though agriculture is related to food. The practice of sustainable
development in this case depends on the biodynamic farming or mixed farming or
crop rotation processes; here sustainable development is used to decrease the use of
chemicals and fertilizers on the crops to make more production.
6. Education: Education refers to the skills and knowledge of the individuals. It is
counted on the basis o the literate and illiterate people in a population of any country
and also the main requirement is the basic elementary education of those peoples. It is
also considered about the fact that any particular skilled people or how many skills
doe any person have that they are going to get more priority.
7. Arts: Arts are considered as an important idea of the sustainable development because
it is directly related to it and also reflects the indexes of the major community. By
practicing art it id very way to make the calculation of the rejuvenation and a few
stress management methods are also done. In this art there is different co curricular
activities like playing music, painting, and many other creative manners which are
very helpful.
8. Governmental: The aspects from the governmental offices are related to the policies
that are made for the people. It includes the policies like that are beneficial for the
people through the sustainable development. In the policies there are few more
benefits given for the people like minimum wages policy to everyone, Right to
education given to every children and food security for every people. The citizens are
informed to follow the certain rules and are responsible for every mistakes because all
the money are coming from those taxes and protection of public property, the
government will do all the necessary things but people had to follow the rules and
regulations set by the government. The government will be responsible if any issues
occurred during the implementation of these policies and any kind of violations made
by anyone will be punished or it’s a punishable offence.
Strong and Weak Sustainability:

Strong sustainability refers to the ‘human capital’ and ‘natural capital’; both are
complementary but non-interchangeable where as contracting the weak sustainability it is an
idea within environmental economics which reflects the ‘human capital’ but it can substitute
or replicate ‘natural capital’. In case of weak sustainability, human capital incorporates those
resources like infrastructure, labour and knowledge and the natural capital comprises of
environmental assets like fossils fuels, biodiversity and other ecosystem services. In very
weak sustainability the stock of manmade capital and natural capital remains constant all
time. Strong sustainability accepts the condition that there are certain conditions or functions
which couldn’t be duplicated by human or human made capital.

Significance of TBL in Sustainable Development:

After defining the TBL or Triple Bottom Line and the sustainable development in the above
part, let’s now discuss the significance of TBL in the sustainable development (Chamberlain,
2017). The survey was designed to ensure adequate representation as well as diverse type of
jurisdiction. The ideas of the sustainable development and the principles of TBL are totally
correlated to each other; to explain the relationship a few calculations are made by analysing
the level of sustainable development, which is practised by organizations and also by the
government globally (Calabrese, Costa, and Menichini, 2016).

Significance of TBL in Sustainable Construction:

Definition:

Sustainable construction is aimed to meet the needs of the present days for housing with the
help of sustainable development without comprising or changing the abilities of future
generation.
Discussion on SC using each bottom line:

One can use sustainable construction by understanding the three P’s in the following way:

A. People: During the discussion of sustainable construction it is found that the need o
contractor, manufacturer and suppliers are one and accordingly it will make some
impact over those people who were affected by the environmental performances and
their duties in such away so it remain protected. Depending on the construction
process makes the affect on those part of lives and their surroundings too, but it is
very important to keep in mind that the process of construction shouldn’t harm the life
of those people. The local community is getting affected by the basic problem in a
positive manner by hiring local labourers, contractors, designers as well as shortage of
products and suppliers in an adequate way. The people those are not involved in the
construction due to long time taken to complete the construction getting affected
indirectly. This can be reduce by improvising the transporting methods and the
processes being done in the construction. The most important part of the construction
is to keep the environment friendly and safe for every person working on the
construction site. The labourers safety are very much important and should be the first
concern too look at.
B. Planet: To maintain the environment a good harmony is very important. Every step of
the construction should be taken seriously and with great priority to protect every
single environment close and visible. Construction should be planned from the
beginning of the day next to the design and up to eventual completion. In the
construction process, the waste reduction, water management and recycling are the
key points to be followed. In the matter of sustainable construction, the process is
very important to e discussed in detail. It is suggested to use the environment friendly
products and to also to keep financial part in mind so in every respect the construction
get over and all the aspects must be followed.
C. Profit: In case of sustainable construction, the company must be sure regarding the
undertaking of the project and the profits should be ensured after following all the
aspects of sustainable construction. The profit in this sustainable construction is not
limited and one more condition is there that the project should be overall good and for
the development of the company as well as the globe in general.
Consideration of lifecycle approach:

To get the whole picture it is very important to extend the thinking of life cycle approach to
encompass all three parts of the sustainability. The three main parts are the i) environmental,
ii) economic and iii) social. It means in this phase, the social issues, environmental and
economic discussions to be done (Feng, 2013).. This life cycle approach is preferred as the
best technique to make the assessment and the potential environmental impacts of that
product. It is a costly technique as all quality needs to be maintained in this project, for better
alignment the researchers are researching for the better alignment of the process and to make
it more perfect.

Good construction and SC:

The main objective of the sustainable construction is to make the environment ecologically
friendly by using harmless products to nature. To improve the construction process recycling
plays an important role. Depending on the site of the construction, the profit can be obtained
from the construction by providing maximum comfortable conditions in the efficient way.
When design the development of the construction, the factors to be analysed like
management of water, transportation or to promote the maximum savings on the energy of
preservation of limited resources like coal, fossil fuels, etc. By using the right materials and
by avoiding serious threats it can guarantee a healthy and comfortable the necessary criteria
to attain the optimal comfort.
4. Sustainability Report:

Sustainability report can be defined as a report of the organization or the company about the
financial, ecological and the social impacts, which is caused on daily basis. It is also report
the present value and the governance model and exhibit the link between its plan and its
assurance to a sustainable world economy (Gouchev, Knowles, Sharp, Psaltakis, and Lauro,
2017).

Sustainability report can help the companies to measure social, environmental or their
economic performance after that the company set their goals so that they can manage the
change more successfully. This report helps the organization to communicate their
sustainability performance and its impact, which can be both negative and positive.

Introduction:

Every year the company SD Construction publishes the sustainability report to make people
understand how the company is working on the sustainability development. In this
Sustainability report, SD construction will make the report according to the GRI (Global
Reporting Initiative). This report will describe the work done by the company on the
sustainability matters. This year the report will follow the current guidelines of the GRI. As
the SD construction has signed the UN global Compact, the sustainability report is also helps
the UN to see the improvement of the company on the ten principles of the UN global.

Besides that in the sustainability, report of the company the annual report is also mentioned in
the same report. Apart from that, more information is also available in the website of the
company just visit www.SDconstructionworld.com
Overview of the company:

SD construction is one of the leading companies in the world. The field of expertise of the
company is Construction as well as the civil engineering. The company is having more than
25000 employees across the globe. The company generates the revenue of 55 billion $. SD
construction is versatile company as it handles the small local projects as well as multi dollar
company projects. The head office of the company is in the Skane, Sweden. Moreover, the
company has many offices across the world. The company has 40000 shareholders as well as
the company is having 15% female employees.
Strategies and Analysis:

The company will adopt the competitive strategy. The

company will aim for the market in which many
people need to build the houses. Therefore, the company
will aim to provide high quality houses for their clients in a reasonable price. To achieve that
amount of quality the company need up to date machineries for their construction activities.
The company do everything based on the core values and the vision of the company. SD
construction operates their business in a developing and reliable manner. Sustainability is
very much vital issue for the SD construction as because the company is getting the
competitiveness in the changing world and the world is affected by the urbanization and
digitalization. Since the company has sign, the UN Global impact the company has focused
on the growth of the sustainability. The company has included it on every part of the
operations. It has included in the one of the six group strategies to develop the business,
which is mentioned below:

 Operation that are cost effective

 To develop the SD construction’s customer relations
 To provide best workplace
 Long-standing profitable procedure
 To put the Sustainability in the operations of SD Construction
 Brand name should be seen and heard.

The company has divided the management into three parts, who looks for the safety, quality
and the environment. All the three management has certified by the ISO and their guidelines.
The company concentrate on the development and it offers the best workplace in the
industries that provide the safety among the employees. To achieve this it requires systematic
working to strengthen the safety culture of the company. Company also plans to offer the
most satisfied customer base as well as it will make profit among them. The company always
do surveys to get the correct feedback of the customers. SD construction plans to cut the
prices of the operation to get more profit and to sustain the business. The company also work
in the ethics, against the corruption, this will help the company to build relationship of
confidence, and it will prevent the brand damage as well as it will save the companies
environment.

The company’s operations are influenced by and influence other parties too. It is important
for the company to find the challenges that can affect the company, society, employees and
the customers. To understand the expectation of the stakeholder the company organize the get
together with the stakeholders. The meeting focused on how the stakeholders can come up
with the company to contribute for sustainable society.
“The CEO of SD Construction said that the company is getting a strong housing market
conditions in Sweden as well as the world. As many countries are focusing on the house
building for their citizens. It shows the company will get the new projects and the company
will get the opportunities in future. This will make the stable market for the company. The
financial position of the company is getting stronger day by day”.

Organizational profile:

History of company:

As per the documents of the company, SD Construction has been established on 1988 that
means it has been 30 years since the company has started its operation. By then the company
has overtaken many big names in the same field. Moreover, the company is capturing a huge
market under its belt, and now become one of the biggest names in the construction business.
One of the biggest achievements of the company is that it is able to hold their employees for a
longer period.

Operational Structure:

The CEO who is in the top of the management operates the company; under him, there are
many employees or managers, which operates their individual department. there are separate
department for the BAC that is Business area construction, civil engineering and for the
business area for project development.

Figure 2: Operational hierarchy

Scale of organization:

After its launch the company has increase its brand name as well as the company is getting
many projects. Since then the company has around 4000 projects including the designing
modelling as well as the construction that is a huge amount. The company has generated
around 55 billion of revenue and it has around 25000 employees all over the world. The
company has made many trusted clients in Sweden as well as in the world. The company also
got the appreciation from the Swedish government for their work.

Range of the Products:

SD constructions deliver the various ranges of projects and services for their clients. The
company provides designing and modelling of the building as well as the construction. The
clients of the company are from many backgrounds like aviation, education community as
well as the commercial sector. As the company has many offices around the world, it is easy
for them to take any proposal from any countries. SD construction offers various services and
support to the customers.

Reporting Parameters of SD construction:

Product Cost Quality Quantity Time

Cost planning of N/A Cost effective 08 clients 1 month
construction
Designing of It would require Modern design 1 project 1-2 months
construction around 1 million
to 20 million
Construction of The cost will be Superior quality 1 project 6-8 months
building around 1 million
to 130 million
Governance, commitments and Engagement:

The company follows the rules and regulation of the country. The company need to follow
those rules, as it will affect the company business if they do not follow. They are also
maintaining the internal and the external environment where they are operating their
business. Besides that it can be seen that the company is also follows two more governance
that is corporate governance. In the corporate governance system the owner, make the
decision of the company whether it is directly or indirectly, as well as the company is having
a set of rules and regulations or policies that the BOD or the executive administration decides
it. Apart from that, the companies should follow the external laws and regulation such as the
company Act.

Corporate governance in SD construction

the company is currently engaged in many government as well as some private projects,
which shows the a positive relationship with its clients, apart from that the company also
commits in the social welfare by providing educations for the young people as well as the
making community building for the locals. In SD construction, the company holds an annual
general meeting for the stakeholder s where they choose the correct decision by voting. The
shareholder ask question about the projects as well as they give their opinion regarding the
business.
Management approach:

In the company management team, is one of the important part of the company. The
management team carries out all the important decision and the activities. In SD the
management, team does construction activities like the construction as well as the
maintenance of the sustainability work. In the management team, there are the board of
directors as well as the team of management who design and construct the plan of the
company. SD Construction management approach or we can say the goal of the company is
to do the work in the budget and to do in the provided time. Any project is done on the same
way to ensure a huge amount of profit. For that, the company provides the training to the
employees.

5. General challenges in using Triple bottom line for sustainable

development:

Sustainability is considered as the goals of the company. John Elkigton is the founder of the
theory of Triple Bottom line as John wanted to know about the performance of the American
corporate business in the mid of 1900s. He designs the accounting framework called Triple
Bottom Line (TBL). The TBL not even calculate the profits and the return of investment it is
also calculates the environmental and the social dimensions.

TBL is an accounting framework that includes three proportions of performance. That is

social, environmental and the financial. The Triple bottom line also includes the 3P’s that is
people, planet and profits.

There are few general challenges while using the triple bottom line in the sustainability
development. First will be the measurement of the TBL:

TBL can be complex while measuring. The company measures only the intangible assets
such as loyalty or status can be unclear, and it challenges to connect changes in these areas to
split actions in the short term [ CITATION Kau12 \l 16393 ].the management should take
several choices to make constantly, again and again in order to expand their measurement and
reporting system.
Social Measurement

The first limitation, which the TBL faces is the social measurement, before understanding the
limitation in details the beginning of the Global Reporting Initiative and its guidelines need to
be discussed to understand the framework to reveal this restriction. GRI is the largest and
broadly accepted structure for reporting the corporate sustainability. The GRI has its own
guidelines of G3. These guidelines can be applied to the organizations of different size and
different locations (Saleh, and Alalouch, 2015). TBL does not allow to prioritizing the
requirements among the different stakeholders. TBL does not even provide any formula or
any methods in its framework that can combine across TBL principles. Moreover, there is no
quantitative outline that is combined or provide across the legs of TBL. The approach of TBL
in corporate in terms of reporting has increased the questions as well as the confusing in
revenue maximization.

Lack of integration

The TBL approach does not address all the concerns, which is articulated by the peoples who
the beneficiaries are of calculated and project level responsibility. These concerns hardly ever
fit into the economic or in the social categories (Yusof, 2018).

Challenges and opportunities in SC

Sustainable construction is division of construction industry. Green construction and eco-

friendly ethics are combined together to make a healthy environment. The key principles of
SC are as follows:

 Increasing reuse of resources

 Reducing Resource usage
 Using recyclable and renewable assets
 Securing Nature
 Creating Healthy and safe environment
 Creating quality in constructions

SC considers three major aspects namely social, environmental and economic issues. The
most important factor is economic issue which includes reducing maintenance or operating
costs, creating jobs, increasing production and competition (Park and Chertow, 2014). The
environmental issue deals with the construction, deconstruction, design and operation or
maintenance those impacts on eco system such as water resources, lands, waste discharges,
air discharge and many others. The social issue deals with the improvement of life values.

There are several challenges in SC, such as:

Corporate Sustainability:

Companies cannot avoid their environmental responsibility. However, in order to increase

production as per demand, often they violate some polices (Ioannou and Serafeim, 2017)..

For constructing new building and increasing the living area, so many natural resources are
harmed on daily basis. Contractors, manufacturers, suppliers – all of them are somehow
impacting the environment (by destroying trees to make construction structures).

Environment:

To make a sustainable construction, the impacts must be minimized. It can be done by

effective planning and designing the construction site.

Proper drainage system, storing rain water, reduction of waste, recycling the materials are
some factors in creating a sustainable environment. Additionally, some specialist workers
must work to make an affective SC (Keeler, & Vaidya, 2016).

Society:

It is important to make the building after considering both positive and negative impact in the
society. Local workers and contractors must work to make a successful proactive structure. In
addition, the transportation of raw materials should be carefully monitored. The material
suppliers should be careful about noise pollution (Pacheco-Torgal 2014).

Choosing raw materials:

The materials must be wisely selected for sustainable construction purpose. These materials
can involve:

 Fire resisting steel

 Steel made roofs and pipes
 Recyclable concrete and copper structure
Incident and accidents:

Accident can happen in any part of the world. To minimize risks, effective risk analysis must
be done. Safety guidelines and precautions must be followed in construction site to keep the
wok site safe for the workers. Also some incidents can happen intentionally or
unintentionally which have severe affects to nature (Ogunbiyi, Goulding, and Oladapo,
2014).

Challenges and issues in reporting sustainability

Sustainability reporting is intended which increases the public trust and efficiency and
reduces the chances of risk. It is also help to increase the confidence of the stakeholders.
There are several challenges and issues in reporting the sustainability (Holden, Linnerud, &
Banister, 2017).

Many companies still faces some challenges in sustainability initiatives because the
management is not able to apply the sustainability in all of its construction and services. In
the case of the construction company, it is hard not spread pollution as the company is related
to the construction and while making building it will spread pollution. This will take a lot of
challenge on the association to meet the ecological criteria (Hussain, Rigoni, and Orij,
2018). The company must think other solutions to reduce the impact of the work. The
company and its management must do some work or programs for the safety of
environments. However, not all this work will improve their performance in the sustainability
initiative, as the company have to work in building materials, which causes air pollution. The
company has to face these least challenges and issues. These are some of the issues while
reporting the sustainability (Mokhtar, Mahmood, and Che Hassan, 2015).
Conclusion:

Based on the project, one can understand the importance Triple Bottom Line strategy,
Sustainable development and Sustainable construction. The project also focuses on the GRI
(Global Reporting Initiative). There are a number of companies that are working on the
sustainable development. The organizations are getting success after doing work on the
sustainable construction. The company has to implement reusable raw materials for
construction. The planning must be effective so that the nearby environment could not get
affected during or after construction. The company has to take some initiatives to reduce
harmful materials used in construction purpose. The main purpose it to make a eco-friendly
construction with proper drainage systems and also should not pollute air. So it is recommend
to use renewable resources for making a sustainable construction.
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