Waste Audit

Cody Hyman, Bentley University

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Initial Publication Date: May 23, 2023

Summary

We conducted 2 waste audits, one voluntary and one to be turned in to share with the class. This captures different incentives involved with current ESG disclosure (voluntary) and the SEC's proposed mandatory rule. Students wrote 1 paragraph on how their perception changed. We used the information to learn PivotTables in Excel and to evaluate what makes disclosed information useful. We shared answers via an in-class anonymous poll.

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Learning Goals

This fit very easily into a discussion of what qualities make accounting information/disclosures useful to outside stakeholders. It was useful to consider analysis in an accounting context, find value in some Excel tools, and consider (critical thinking) how firms' motivations might be shaped by the disclosure regulatory enviornment.

Context for Use

This activity is a follow-on to the Wicked Problem of an Equitable​ Zero-Waste Circular Economy​ module.

This was run in each of 4 sections of ~30 college freshmen and sophomores. It took about 20-30 minutes of class time. Students didn't need any special skills, but this was useful for showing them PivotTables.

Description and Teaching Materials

Students were given the waste audit sheet and told to fill it out on 2 separate occasions - one to do on their own and one to turn in to be shared with the class. The second time, they were asked to write a paragraph or ~3 bullet points on how their perceptions/actions changed knowing that their results would be shared. In class, we discussed (via anonymous polling using polleverywhere.com) whether it mattered to know things like how someone defined "1 piece of trash," how big that piece of trash was, could the record be verified, etc.




Teaching Notes and Tips

Effort varied across my 4 sections, but allowing anonymous answers seemed to elicit more honest answers and participation. The downside was that silly answers were reinforced and, in 1 section, derailed the class momentarily.

Assessment

I graded this only whether (1) they turned in the second (mandatory) waste audit and (2) the effort (on a scale of 1-3) for their reflection paragraph.

References and Resources

This is a brief overview of the SEC's proposed rule: https://www.spglobal.com/esg/solutions/getting-ready-for-the-sec-climate-disclosure-rule?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=ESG_Risk_Search&utm_term=sec%20esg%20proposal&utm_content=654053077651&gclid=Cj0KCQjwyLGjBhDKARIsAFRNgW9fap-4BlJ6AQNdw-46TPC6YIg8TBFZFzw0ZVGQth_N6nO_NTS7zFQaAs8iEALw_wcB