Assignment
The following information is provided by Santos website
Santos is one of the leading independent oil and gas producers in the Asia-Pacific region, supplying the energy needs of homes, businesses and major industries across Australia and Asia.
Assume that you have graduated from RMIT University and set up your own business – ASM (Australia Sustainability Management) Consulting – a sustainability consulting firm. This business is the realisation of your business proposal generated when studying at RMIT after you have successfully completed several sustainability-related courses. Using the proposal, you had won the RMIT Business Medal Award and gave a good impression to one of the industry panel judges from Santos. Santos subsequently engaged your consulting service by assigning three independent but related tasks to you.
The three tasks are as follows
Requirements
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Santos has noticed an emerging and increasing trend of discussion about sustainability from businesses and some of Santos’s competitors are adopting various sustainability frameworks and practices. Although Santos is currently adopting a sustainability framework the CEO feels that there may be a potential advantage for further advancement in sustainability. He has asked you to conduct research and provide a formal business report to him, addressing the following questions.
1. What is sustainability? Is the notion of sustainability relevant to business and accounting? Justify your answer.
2. Is the notion of sustainability relevant to the industry in which Santos operates? Justify your answer.
3. What are the specific (material) sustainability issues that Santos is facing? Justify your answer. Further, develop a strategic materiality matrix for Santos to illustrate your findings.
4. If sustainability is relevant to Santos, how might Santos embed sustainability in its operations and corporate activities? Justify your recommendations.
