ACX2900|5900 Accounting for Sustainability Assignment 1

Weighting: 10% of the total marks for the subject (marked out of 40 in total)

Due Date: To be submitted on 11 August 2023, 11.55 p.m. the latest

Word Limit: No formal word count. One A4 page limit.

Formatting: How you choose to present this piece of assessment is up to you (i.e., you can include numbers, percentages, words, images, diagrams, tables, images, key reflections etc).

Referencing: Reference List, if you have one, should be submitted separately in a .pdf format. Applied accounting frameworks and reporting standards do not require referencing. Please also see the resources on Academic Integrity on Moodle in the Section “Topic Schedule and Assessment Summary”.

Learning objectives assessed

This assignment is designed to assess your achievement of the following unit learning outcomes:

•    Evaluation of the factors effecting sustainability reporting by diverse organisations

•    Demonstration of broad knowledge and technical skills in accounting, and provision of

discipline-based solutions relevant to the business, professional and public policy communities that we serve

•    Critical evaluation and personal reflection of common reporting used by different organisations to account for the sustainability implications of their operations

Applying what you have learned in class throughout the first few weeks and combining it with your own research, you are asked to prepare a visual account of Waste on Show. Research skills involve searching for and the synthesis of waste-related data and information, as well as combining different sources of information and reconciling various methods of data collection and evaluation. The task will assist in the further development of your data collection, analysis, and communication skills. Importantly, the task is aimed at enhancing your creative thinking skills and thus your capacity to combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, and expertise in original ways. The task further aims at creating an experience of thinking, reacting, and working in an imaginative way that is characterized by a high degree of innovation, divergent thinking, and risk taking.

Overview Assignment 1:

People in Australia dispose of 50,000 coffee cups every 30 minutes. That results in approx. 2.7 million single-use or disposable coffee cups every single day, addingto at least 1 billion single use coffee cups being thrown out every year. Standard disposable coffee cups cannot be recycled through the standard paper recycling process because they have a plastic lining. Whilst the lid often seems recyclable, this is not the case as most councils don’t recycle plastic lids due to the size and type of plastic which is usually polystyrene and expense and difficult to recycle. Recycling facilities regularly comment that in addition to the low value/demand for this material, due to the large surface area of the lids and how light they are, they can behave like paper in the sorting process, causing contamination issues. In councils in which this #6 plastic is accepted, it isn’t processed in Australia but shipped overseas. Even ‘compostable’ cups are most often not composted as most of Australia’s existing composting facilities cannot yet process them effectively.

Details Assignment 1: Visual Account

“ How do buy and sell decisions impact on sustainability?”

Monash University states that it is “focused on creating positive solutions to the collective environmental challenges ahead” and is asking the Monash community “to get involved through initiatives focused on making our campuses more sustainable” (Monash, 2023a). In addition, to demonstrate its commitment to SDG 12 Responsible Consumption and Production, Monash University is aiming to become ‘zero waste’ using the principles of the circular economy. To this extent, Monash University aims to “eliminate waste from the campuses with only valuable recycling streams remaining” and is focusing on “creating a waste-free dining experience” (Monash, 2023b).

This raises the question of how sustainable Monash University as a community currently is, specifically how the buy-and-sell decisions of the Monash University community impact on sustainability. Accounting for (i) the decisions of retailers to sell products in packaging that can under the current waste program on campus not be recycled and (ii) customer behaviour which might be able to reduce the amount of waste ending up in landfill along with (iii) how both are impacting on sustainability is the first step in identifying a strategy that allows for a reduction of waste to landfill and its sustainability impact.

To account for the buy-and-sell decisions on Clayton campus and their impact on sustainability, you are to focus on the issue of single-use coffee cups on the Clayton campus. Specifically, you are to conduct a data collection and analysis on the extent and impact the use of single-use coffee cups by the Monash University campus has on sustainability. The results of your data collection and analysis are to be presented in a visual account. As part of this account, you need to cover the following:

•    Sale of takeaway coffees (with/without lids, in paper cups, in reusable cups)

•    Sale of single-use coffee cups consumed in store (with/without lids)

•    Sale of coffees/hot beverages in ceramic cups consumed in store

•    Impact of the above three points on sustainability

In  order  to  be  able  to  account  for  the  use  of  single-use  coffee  cups  on  Clayton  campus  and its sustainability impact, you will need to collect data on the buying and selling behavior of a chosen café on Clayton campus and its customers, and analyse it. For this, you are to attend a café of your own choice on Clayton campus for 60 minutes. Doing so will allow you to collect data on customer and business behaviour in relation to the sale of coffees/hot/cool beverages. Please note that you can also collect your data by sitting outside the café, and are in noway required to purchase an item from the café to complete this task.

Important: Please enter the café and the timeframe you intend to cover with regards to data collection in this spreadsheet. Ideally, the same café would not be covered twice during the same timeframe, enabling us to get a comprehensive picture of the Monash University community’s behaviour and its impact on waste once we reconcile your individual visual accounts. Please also enter the total number of single-use coffee cups purchased into the spreadsheet.

Assignment Submission

The above question (‘How do the buy-and-sell decisions of the Monash University community impact on sustainability? The case of single-use coffee cups’) should be answered through a visual account of your collected and analysis data over a time of 60 minutes at a Monash University Clayton campus café of your own choice.

The visual account should be submitted electronically on Moodle before 11 August 2023 at 11.55 p.m. the very  latest via  Moodle. The visual can  be  prepared  with  any  word  processing  (e.g.,  Word)  or presentation software (e.g., PPT, Canva etc) and should be uploaded in a .pdf format. You may include numbers, words, photos, figures, tables, images etc in your account. As long as you stay within the parameters of the task (e.g., one A4 page), you may articulate your knowledge through a single visual account or multiple linked visual accounts. Importantly, the submitted file needs to include your student ID, name and signature (this can be very small and, in a corner of your visual account, as long as it is readable – it is, however,suggested you do not use a font size smaller than 8 pt).

Do not include the submission cover page provided by the university, the content of this is covered by the online submission system.

Use of Generative AI

In this assessment, you can use generative artificial intelligence (AI) to assist you in anyway. Any use of generative AI must be appropriately acknowledged.

Assessment Criteria

Your work for Assignment 1 will be marked out of 40.

A matrix outlining the assessment criteria for the visual account, and how your work will be assessed against these criteria is provided below in Appendix A.

Appendix A: Assessment Criteria. Visual Account (40 Marks)