SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability Report Analysis- Vodafone and Wessex Water

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Vodafone3

Wessex Water5

Sustainability Report Analysis5

Range and Depth7

Vodafone7

Wessex Water8

Vodafone vs. Wessex Water:9

Industry Differences9

Standardized Approach9

Zadek's Quality Report Criteria10

Inclusivity10

Completeness10

Comparability10

Management Procedures and Systems11

Disclosure11

External Verification11

Continuous Improvement11

Recommendations11

Sustainability Report Analysis- Vodafone and Wessex Water

Introduction

In the past few years, people around the globe have started to realize the deteriorating effects that certain daily activities can have on the environmental conditions of the world. An increased emphasis is being placed on ecological friendly ways of doing things and developing environment friendly alternatives to things. Similarly, the public also expect companies to be environment friendly in their activities. Companies today are being governed by laws pertaining to the effects a company's activities can have on the environment.

Today companies are expected to be ethical and socially responsible. Business ethics requires that a company's activities are moral and justifiable by being substantively right, fair and not harmful to the external system of the company (Tencati and Perrini, 2011, pp. 4). Zsolnai in 2009 suggested that being substantively right means that a company is ecological friendly and does not harm nature, does not exploit the future for coming generations, and enables people (Tencati and Perrini, 2011, pp. 4).

According to Sims (2003, pp. 43), Corporate Social Responsibility means that a company or business behaves in an ethical way and contributes towards economic development, the development of the quality of life of its workforce and the community or society overall. Similarly, CSR can also be understood in terms of a triple bottom line (Nelson and Terevino, 2010, pp. 334). This triple bottom line refers to the economic, social and environmental impacts of a company. Nelson and Trevino point out that that the term sustainability has been used sometimes to represent the three aspects of the triple bottom line. On the other hand, sometimes sustainability has just been associated with the third the third impact of the triple bottom line. So, sometimes sustainability has been used as a way to define all the CSR activities while some companies consider it to represent the environmental efforts.

Even though, sustainability maybe considered by companies as representing different things sustainable development identifies that companies need to make efforts to preserve the future, economic, environmental or social, while focusing on meeting their present needs. Idaho and Filho (2009, pp. 184) suggest that CSR activities are a way to achieve sustainable development.

Vodafone

Vodafone is a company in the telecommunication industry. It is considered as one of the world's leading mobile and data communication services providers. It started out as Racal Strategic Radio in 1984. It 1985, when the first analogue mobile network was launched and the first call from London to Newbury was made the group became UK's first mobile or cellular network. By 1987, the group became the largest mobile network in the world. It was in 1991, that the group was demerged and the independent company was named Vodafone Group. In 1991, Vodafone also launched the first digital GSM mobile services in the UK and signed the first international roaming ...