title: Towards a new paradigm: Activity level balanced sustainability reporting.
abstract: Technoeconomic paradigms based economic growth theories suggest that waves of technological innovations drove the economic growth of advanced economies. Widespread economic degradation and pollution is an unintended consequence of such growth. Tackling environmental and social issues at firm levels would help us to overcome such issues at macro-levels. Consequently, the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) reporting approach promotes firm level economic, environmental and social performances. Incorporating Zink's (2014) 3-pillar presentation model, this paper indicates that economic, social and environmental performances tend to be reported at firm level. All three pillars are not covered evenly at the activity levels. Thus, a loophole is identified whereby excellent environmental performance at activity levels could potentially leave poor social performance undisclosed. A refinement of the TBL paradigm, whereby all three pillars are covered at the activity level, is suggested, to enhance sustainability reporting.
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Malaysia. Electronic address: ananda.samudhram@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Ananda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Samudhram
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Eu-Gene
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Siew
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Jothee
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sinnakkannu
authors.affiliation: Monash University, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Paul H P
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Yeow
mesh_terms: D000847:Annual Reports as Topic; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D004467:Economics; D006804:Ergonomics; D006801:Humans; D016272:Occupational Health; D015279:Organizational Culture; D016134:Organizational Policy; D058028:Research Report / Q000592:standards*; D012941:Social Responsibility
keywords: Global reporting initiative; Human factors; Sustainability reporting; Triple bottom line