Corporate Social Responsibility

Full cost accounting (also known as Corporate Social Responsibility) embodies the notion that corporate profits may have a broader impact on communities and the environment and that these impacts should be accounted for in any cost-benefit framework. Full cost accounting is often referred to as the triple bottom line and includes a three-part accounting framework: financial, social and environmental. The financial component is a traditional measure of the costs and benefit of production, while the social and environmental components endeavor to measure positive and negative externalities associated with production.

Alward Social Systems

Full cost accounting has been a growing area of interest among many public and private institutions. In recent years financial institutions and corporations have begun to voluntarily report the broader impacts they perceive to have on households, communities and the environment through the release of annual corporate social responsibility reports.

The Alward Institute offers an array of input-output models that can be used to measure the broader impact that investment and production have on local communities. These models represent the monetary value of all transactions that flow through a regional economy within a given period and describe all costs of production as well as all sales between producers and consumers. Because of the comprehensive nature of this accounting framework input-output models can be used to estimate the triple bottom line impacts of a particular industry on a larger community. For example, the input-output framework can be used to estimate the number of local jobs supported through community investment or the level of CO2 emission embedded within a particular industrial process. The input-output framework can also be used to demonstrate the distributional effects that national investment has on communities throughout the nation.

The Alward Institute offers input-output models for all U.S. zip codes, counties, cities, congressional districts, and states as well as many foreign country models. These models are particularly well-suited to investigate the impacts of community investment, industry production and environmental effects. In conjunction with our analytical services they offer the opportunity to better understand and enhance the triple bottom-line performance of both public and private sector organizations.

 

 

Payments

Sales

Regional Input-Output Schematic

Firms

Factors

Institutions

Trade

Total receipts

Firms

Intermediate   inputs

 

Final   demand

Exports

Total sales

Factors

Value-added

     

Value-added

Institutions

Indirect   Taxes

Income

Direct   taxes, transfers

 

HH & gov’t income, savings

Trade

Imports

     

Imports

Total expenditure

Total costs

Total   Income

HH, gov’t, investment expenditure

Exports