Corporate social responsibility disclosure: evidence from the European retail sector

The article provides an up-to-date description of practices in the field of corporate social responsibility disclosures among European retailers. Reports registered by the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Disclosure Database and corresponding to the following parameters have been used for the study: sector – retailers; region – Europe; report type – GRI G1, GRI G2, GRI G3, GRI G3.1, GRI G4, GRI Standards. The author has calculated general and specific Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure Indexes, and has analyzed individual elements of general, economic, environmental and social disclosures. The results confirm the spread of corporate social responsibility disclosures; a linear increase in the number of sustainability reports by European retailers is observed. The typical environmental disclosures for retailers are related to energy consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and waste. Among the social disclosures, the most popular are the “New employee hires and employee turnover”, as well as those associated with hazard identification, risk assessment, and incident investigation in the context of occupational health and safety, and the impact of goods and services on the health and safety of consumers. Disclosures related to water consumption, protected areas and IUCN Red List species, certain aspects of occupational health and safety (such as worker training, promotion of worker health, work-related injuries and ill health, etc.) and indigenous peoples' rights were less common among the European retailers. The results may be useful for retailers who are beginning to create sustainability reports, including in terms of examples of best practices and industry-specific features of retail corporate social responsibility.