Requires you to work in a group on a project investigating sustainability accounting and reporting

Purpose The aim of this assessment is to give you the opportunity to utilise the concepts learnt in this course by undertaking a research project on sustainability accounting and reporting. Background A major part of this course requires you to work in a group on a project investigating sustainability accounting and reporting. Potential research projects include but are not limited to the following: • The Sustainability reporting practice of companies (could include particular industries or specific companies and/or specific types of disclosure) or public sector entities (Commonwealth, State/Territories, Councils) via annual reports, sustainability reports and/or websites. • Sustainability Management in companies or public sector entities (could also include disclosure of these in reports) • The stakeholder engagement practice in companies or public sector entities (could also include disclosure of these in reports) • Professional Accounting bodies’ responses to sustainability accounting and reporting (e.g. CPA Australia’s response to sustainability issues) • Sustainability accounting education and curriculum • Integrated Reporting Developments, Practice • Climate Change and its impact on Australian companies (and variations of this topic such as carbon pricing) • Sustainable Development Goals and their impact on business and accounting Task Description The deliverables for this project are a presentation and a research paper. Each group presentation should be between 10-15 minutes long and every member of the group should contribute equally in regard to the presentation time. Support resources For the research paper, students are required to use the academic reference sources to substantiate their key arguments. Your paper should not exceed 4500 words (inclusive of diagrams and tables but excluding the reference list). Standard academic conventions need to be followed in relation to the write-up and referencing. Requirements : the presentation will involve submitting the PowerPoint slides of their presentation and either a video recording of their presentation or a written script of their presentation. The project does not need to be completed at this stage, but students should be clear about what they intend to do, how the project will be undertaken, and why the project is important. Feedback will be provided for the presentation which will assist in the final write-up of the paper. The paper should outline the aims and objectives of your project, the relevant literature and theoretical perspective used to guide your research (including justification of why this perspective is necessary), associated research methods used to gather data (including details of the data collection and research context) and the research findings. Discussion and conclusions sections could summarise the project, highlight the significance of the project and expected contributions of this research for both academia and practice. Students need to specify in the first page of the paper the contributions of each group member and whether they believe each member contributed equally. This statement will need to be signed by all group members in order to receive a mark for the paper.