CAIP Research

In recent years, managers of organisations globally have become more accountable for the impacts of their organisations on the environment. This is no more pertinent than in the case of carbon. Accordingly, this project, the first of its type, will develop a process-based carbon model for a managed urban environment and explore alternative means by which the information produced by the model may be communicated to interested parties. By doing so, it will develop an enhanced basis for understanding, measuring and reporting of carbon emissions which will assist decisions by organisations to reduce carbon emissions as well as, more generally, the decisions made by external stakeholders in allocating scarce economic resources.

The project will develop a process-based model of the carbon cycle of a complex urban system – Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG), Melbourne, and validate the model in the RBG, Sydney. It will test alternative means by which carbon emissions information may be reported to provide information that is useful for the decisions made by diverse stakeholders.

CPA Australia is one of the oldest professional accounting associations in the world. Its archival records provide invaluable insights into the development of the profession and the business community it services. The preservation and management of this heritage will be of benefit not just to the profession but also in enhancing our understanding of the evolution of the corporate foundation of the economy. This project will involve the development of a framework for managing the archive and facilitating access through the use of digital technologies. The outcomes will contribute to preserving and understanding the nation's business history as well as facilitating integration with international accounting and business archives.

Fundamental to the successful re-allocation of resources to address climate change is that greenhouse gas estimates reported by firms are reliable. The first outcome from this research is the development of tools to assist and train the Australian accountancy profession in the estimation of reliable emissions. The second outcome is identification of factors associated with the inaccuracy and bias of greenhouse gas emissions reported by companies and the consequences of the inaccuracies for the share market's valuation of emission liabilities. These research findings will identify issues that need to be addressed by regulators to ensure that the greenhouse gas estimates reported by companies are reliable