Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

The aim of our study was to research corporate sustainability reporting in Slovenia, namely, the volume and type of informa­tion on sustainable development published on corporate websites and in corporate reports available online. In our study, we discuss the content of corporate sustainability reports by considering a series of indicators covering both environmental and social issues. To this end, we designed a model consisting of 85 indicators which were adapted to the content and charac­teristics of Slovenian corporate sustainability reporting. Also, we aimed to identify the eventual relationship between the ISO 14001 (environmental standard) or the obligation to report under the IPPC Directive and sustainability reporting. The final sample consisted of 71 major Slovenian companies from 14 industries, all members of the Slovenian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. We have examined their websites and annual or sustainability reports (if published online). We processed the data in the period from June to October 2009. Our study found that Slovenian corporate sustainability reporting is still in an initial stage. Similarly as indicated by the international study of corporate social responsibility reporting (KPMG, 2008), the majority of Slovenian corporate business reports fail to provide any environmental and social information; only 25% in our study. According to our research, specific environmental reports are being published by as little as 16% of the companies. A comparison of environmental and social reporting shows that in all industries companies tend to report social information more extensively, considering that their number is several times the number of environmental information. Companies give the impression that they fail to recognize environmental issues, in contrast to sports, culture, humanitarian activities, and educa­tion (areas where corporate reporting is most extensive and detailed), as an opportunity to improve their public reputation. Furthermore, our study results show that the awarded ISO 14001 environmental standard encourages a more extensive cor­porate sustainability reporting. Also, companies that are major polluters (operators obliged to report under the IPPC Directive) provide more extensive sustainability information which they publish on the web or in their annual reports. With such poor reporting by companies on their environmental protection activities, doubts arise as to the sufficiency of their environmental efforts in practice.