Importance of Sustainability Performance Indicators as Perceived by the Users and Preparers (original) (raw)
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This article highlights the typologies and integration of sustainability reporting. Through a review of various global sustainability reporting initiatives he makes a case for supporting the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as the most significant reporting integrating economic, environmental, social, and governance in organizational performance. He reviews and correlates the measurements in non-financial reporting, especially exemplified in the “Corporate Social Responsibility Reports”, “Global Citizenship Reports”, “Corporate Citizenship”, and “Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting”. The examination of the evolution of standards in the GRI is correlated to growing importance in sustainability reporting. In the field of complementary reporting, GRI is emerging as the most authoritative sustainability-reporting framework helping organizations to increase transparency and accountability in non-financial reporting. As the number of companies increase in their voluntary sustainability and ESG reporting, the need for integration, harmonization, accountability and transparency is urgent and necessary. The GRI offers such platform for reporting that not only integrates the environmental, social and governance elements on sustainability, but it also encourages a fundamental shift from share-holder reporting into a multi-stakeholder accountability. As the attention to sustainability will become part of corporation’s strategic plans in the years to come, the precise measurements of performance provided by the GRI framework will be crucial for truly integrating sustainability in corporate performance.
A Study of the Economic and Non-Financial Performance Indicators in Corporate Sustainability Reports
Journal of Sustainable Development, 2015
The purpose of this paper is to identify the performance indicators disclosed in corporate sustainability reports. To perform this study we examined Italian Listed companies that produced a sustainability report in 2012. The indicators were identified using a content analysis. We analysed the core and additional indicators disclosed in sustainability reports as well as all the indicators required by sector supplements adopted by companies. Our results show that indicators are widely disclosed in Italian sustainability reports. Social indicators are on average the most commonly used indicators, particularly those concerning labour practices, followed by the economic and then the environmental indicators. The Oil and Gas and Utilities industry sectors disclosed a superior amount of indicators compared to all other sectors. These industry sectors also show a more homogeneous behaviour, also as regards disclosure of core and additional indicators. This study provides one of the first detailed analyses of the different category of GRI indicators used by Italian companies producing sustainability reports.
The objective of this research is to verify the level of adherence to the GRI indicators that Brazilian companies listed in ISE and those listed in FTSE4Good are using in their 2011 sustainability reports and what are the differences between these two groups. The research design combines both quantitative and qualitative methods. The target population consists of 70 companies, 35 from ISE and 35 from FTSE4Good. Content analysis was used to analyze the indicators disclosed in the reports and the information presented was classified in three categories of scoring according to its level of disclosure. On average, ISE companies scored 0,5867 and FTSE4Good scored 0,4451. The best company scored 0,924 and the worst of 70 companies scored 0,105. Overall, our statistical results show that ISE companies are more adherent to the GRI indicators than FTSE4Good companies, mainly in the economic and social dimensions. Yet, the companies spay similar attention in all 3 dimensions, regardless of economic sector and index. We can say that good sustainability reports showing deeper sustainability concerns and business practices related are acting accordingly to the Stakeholder and Legitimacy theories, regardless of their level of adherence to GRI
Society and Economy
Companies of different size and sector regularly publish sustainability reports in order to record and disseminate their activities aimed at contributing to sustainable development and to reflect their corporate social responsibility. From the various existing suggestions for such reports, the principles and guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative are most widely used at least among large companies. The very detailed guidelines and indicator system aim at supporting companies to provide relevant, balanced, comparable, accurate, timely, clear and reliable information on corporate activities and performance, while focusing on sustainabilitycontext and stakeholder inclusiveness in their "non-financial" reporting. However, based on research into the content and quality of non-financial reporting, it is difficult to clearly conclude just how comparable and transparent the reports are, as well as to decide whether they truly reflect the sustainability performance of the reporting companies. The paper provides a literature review and a qualitative analysis on the reporting practice of 37 large companies.
Pacific Accounting Review
Purpose This paper aims to reflect on the future of sustainability reporting standards by examining the current practical initiatives and the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) position in the arena of non-financial and sustainability reporting and identifies avenues for future research. Design/methodology/approach A critical reflection and analysis of research on the GRI’s achievements and the influence of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation’s initiative to develop global sustainability reporting standards. Findings The GRI has a dominant position in sustainability reporting standard-setting related to the provision of information about the influence of reporting organisations on society and the natural environment. The IFRS Foundation’s initiative to enter the sustainability reporting standard-setting arena, although from the perspective of providing information to investors regarding the influence of society and the environment on the reporting orga...
The Impact of Sustainability Reporting on Company Performance
Journal of Economics, Business, and Accountancy | Ventura, 2012
Sustainability reporting and company performance are the two factors that need to be studied in recent years. Sustainability Reporting is non-financial report that consists of three elements which are economic performance, environmental performance, and social performance. This research attempts to examine the relationship between sustainability reporting as a whole and each of the elements of sustainability reporting with company performance. It consists of 32 companies listed on Indonesian stock exchange during the period of year 2006-2009. The independent variables are sustainability reporting, economic performance disclosure, environmental performance disclosure, and social performance disclosure. These variables are measured by means of disclosure index. Sustainability Reporting Guidelines from Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is used as the basis of calculating the index score. The dependent variable is Return on Asset (ROA) as a measure of economic performance. This research uses secondary data collected from company website and Indonesian stock exchange. The result shows that sustainability reporting influences company performance. However, partially, only social performance disclosure influences the company performance.
Gri Standards-Based Sustainability Reporting Disclosure Practices Across Countries
Media Riset Akuntansi, Auditing & Informasi
The disclosure of sustainability reports based on GRI standards between countries has become a new trend in recent years. This is driven by various factors, such as increasing awareness of sustainability issues, increasing information demands from investors and other stakeholders, and increasing the number of sustainability reporting standards available. This study aims to determine the level of disclosure of sustainability reports in companies engaged in the basic materials and energy industry sector in developed countries (UK, Germany and France) and developing countries (Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand). The content analysis method is used in this study to assess the content of sustainability reports or integrated company annual reports of 269 selected companies listed in the basic material and energy sectors of the stock exchanges of each country within the period 2019 to 2022. Based on the results of the analysis, it was concluded that the level of sustainability disclosure in...
… Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER), 2010
Over the last years, sustainable development has become one of the major issues that all global organizations are facing. The Global Reporting Initiative, located in the Netherlands and considered the leading authority world-wide, has developed what is currently considered the common framework for sustainability reporting. The latest version of their reporting guidelines called G3 contains detailed instructions and standards on how to prepare sustainability reports. The goal of this study is to determine if there are significant differences with regard to size, financial performance, capital structure, and corporate governance between firms that publish a G3 sustainability report to those that don't. The results of this analysis show that corporations with the characteristics of being located in Europe, and/or being active in the energy or producing sector, and/or with a higher profit margin are more likely to produce high quality sustainability reports. Corporations with a higher long-term growth rate, on the other hand, are less likely to produce sustainability reports.