The sustainability of public sector ecological sustainable development reporting

Over the past two decades there has been significantly increased public awareness of and focus on the environmental impact of organisations operations. However, in spite of this increased focus on the environment, most organisations in Australia are not required by regulation to outline the impact of their organisations on the environment nor the measures they are taking to contain or reduce their impact on the environment. To be fair many private sector organisations have been voluntarily providing reports to varying degrees on their environmental performance and management. For example there has been the development and implementation of triple bottom-line reporting, which incorporates environmental performance, and a growing number of private sector organisations outline quite explicitly, in their annual report, their environmental successes. However the only legislated environmental reporting requirement is for private sector organisations to report breaches of environmental laws and licences in their annual reports (Section 299(1) of the Corporations Act 2001). In the public sector the focus on and reporting of environmental performance and management is more formal.