Advances in Sustainability Reporting: What Is Missing?

Abstract

This chapter reflects upon the importance of sustainability reporting (SR) and how it can be a key instrument of good governance, mainly for governments and civil society organizations. The study is descriptive in nature and based on document analysis. It starts with a brief historical background and description of the evolution of SR and an analysis of the concepts of sustainability standards and good governance. Special focus is given to the Group of Friends of Paragraph 47 (GoF47), a voluntary group of national governments that are in the forefront of the discussions about SR policies. From some case studies observed in literature, we identified sparse evidence of stakeholders’ use of information available in SR-especially civil society and governments. Despite recent advances in reporting practices, experience shows that focus still remains on stimulating companies to publish SR rather than on the effective use of the information provided, which demonstrates that more debate is needed. As a result, this study proposes a set of recommendations to governments and civil society on how these stakeholders could use SR to strengthen corporate social and environmental standards.