Our past and present clients include large public companies, government businesses, professional associations and not-for-profit organisations.

Browse case studies of our Stakeholder research for Transurban Ltd, our Review of Westpac Banking Corporation’s 2005 Stakeholder Impact Report and our CSR Review for CPA Australia.

Who has attended ACCSR learning programs?

Case Study 1: The Stakeholder 360® at Transurban Ltd

A company’s ability to reduce its environmental impacts and deliver strong social outcomes while driving business improvement depends on the quality of its relationships with a broad range of stakeholders. In 2006, Transurban engaged the Australian Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility (ACCSR) to conduct stakeholder research with the company’s Australian stakeholders.

The aims of the research were to help Transurban better understand the issues that matter to stakeholders and to inform and support the development of Transurban’s community engagement framework. To achieve these goals, ACCSR implemented the Stakeholder 360®. ACCSR conducted 79 in-depth stakeholder interviews and two external stakeholder meetings.

The results were used to build Transurban’s community engagement strategy and develop its first sustainability report, while the process helped strengthen relationships and shared understanding between Transurban and its stakeholders.

In Transurban’s 2007 sustainability report (www.transurban.com), the company described how it uses the Stakeholder 360® as its “main tool for formally engaging with its stakeholders.” In 2007 ACCSR conducted a Stakeholder 360® for Transurban to uncover key emerging issues and track changes to the company’s stakeholder relationships and reputation from 2006. ACCSR conducted 53 interviews with people from 38 stakeholder organisations.

The 2007 research showed that stakeholders are becoming increasingly concerned about sustainability issues. Transurban’s 2007 sustainability report said: “As well as extracting key stakeholder issues, the research provides valuable data on ‘social capital’ — the quality of our relationships with stakeholders.”

Read Transurban’s first sustainability report by clicking here

“ACCSR’s stakeholder research helped us to think about sustainability in a more holistic way. In the past we tended to deal with stakeholders on an issue-by-issue basis. Now we look at the links between our stakeholders and the issues we share with them as an interconnected network. This gives us new ways of improving business sustainability.” Mike Roberts General Manager, Corporate Relations & Strategic Marketing Transurban Limited

Case Study 2: Review of Westpac Banking Corporation’s 2005 Stakeholder Impact Report

Westpac, a global leader in sustainability reporting, asked us to review their fifth Stakeholder Impact Report in June 2006. Westpac wanted to ensure that its report was addressing the most material issues and that it meets the needs of a range of different stakeholders in the most accessible manner.

We designed a two-part process to achieve Westpac’s objectives. First, we developed a short telephone survey that allowed us to measure and compare in a systematic way the preferences of different stakeholder groups on aspects of the report such as readability, preferred format, narrative quality, data presentation, length, accessibility and language. We also collected data on the issues that matter most to stakeholders. Next, we facilitated stakeholder dialogue about the report through workshops that enabled us to probe issues in more detail that were raised in the survey.

Finally, we synthesised the results of the survey and workshops into a concise report that clearly explained what is working and why, and what can be done to improve what is already a report that other companies look to for benchmarking.

Read our review by clicking here (742 KB PDF)

Read Westpac’s Stakeholder Impact Reports by clicking here

“We were really happy with the outcomes and the process that ACCSR used to review our Stakeholder Impact Report. We had excellent feedback about the process from both employees and external stakeholders. They said it really made a difference having someone who understood the subject matter and appreciated the nuances of key issues. ACCSR’s recommendations are practical and have informed our plans to further improve our Stakeholder Impact Report.” Emma Herd Senior Advisor, Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Westpac Banking Corporation

Case Study 3: CSR Review for CPA Australia

CPA Australia, one of the world’s largest professional accounting bodies, asked us to carry out a CSR Review in August 2006. The organisation already had a range of CSR initiatives but wanted a policy framework to ensure that its next steps would be fully aligned with CPA Australia’s mission and core business.

The methodology for the CSR Review aimed to help CPA Australia develop a policy framework for its CSR approach by answering three questions:

• Where have we been?
• How are we doing?
• Where should we be going?

Therefore the methods selected aim to:

• Elaborate the range of perspectives about CSR at CPA Australia;
• Outline a conceptual framework for CSR at CPA Australia that could provide a foundation for CSR policy and strategy; and
• Make recommendations about a policy position on CSR for CPA Australia

We implemented semi-structured in-depth interviews with a range of CPA Australia leaders and employees, a review of documents provided by CPA Australia, and a workshop. We used our CSR capabilities framework, CSR Management Capacity™ to identify the internal arenas for attention that will enable CPA Australia to achieve its CSR goals.

We used the findings from the interviews, document review and workshop to articulate a range of structural, program and policy options for CPA Australia with short-term, medium-term and long-term timeframes.

“We were looking for a policy framework to draw our CSR programs together and use it as an impetus to go forward. We used the CSR Review with ACCSR for internal learning and education and to highlight our need and desire to understand our position on CSR. The ACCSR report galvanised attention throughout the organisation and provided some recommendations that we are taking to our Board.” Ian Mayer General Manager Reputation & Standards CPA Australia

To contact us click here