Sustainability Reporting of REIT Companies in Malaysia

Abstract

Although there is growing awareness of corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting is still not commonly practiced by companies in Malaysia. Sustainability reporting consists of three dimensions, which include economic, environmental and social sustainability disclosure. The objective of the present study is to examine the extensiveness of sustainability reporting by 17 public listed real estate investment trust (REIT) companies. REIT sector has been chosen because it is closely related to construction activities, which could affect the environment but still plays an important role in boosting the country’s economic growth. Besides, sustainability reporting of REIT companies will also be examined based on application level of GRI. GRI is a corporate sustainability reporting framework that provides various indicators to measure these aspects comprehensively. The findings from content analysis reveals that economic aspect is highly disclosed as compared to environmental and social aspects of sustainability reporting by REIT companies. It also shows that REIT companies in Malaysia do not apply GRI in annual reports for sustainability reporting as they fail to achieve minimum application level of GRI. As there are only a few papers investigating the use of GRI for sustainability reporting by REIT sector in Malaysia, the findings from this study contribute to increase awareness among companies in REIT sector to make active contribution and increase their disclosure for economic, environmental and social aspects. Additionally, the regulators have the responsibility to enforce rules and regulations for higher disclosure of sustainability information as one mean of delivering accountability to wider stakeholders.