Sustainability Reporting – Trends in Regulation and Challenges in Implementation

Sustainability reporting is getting more and more attention from companies and regulators. Companies need to respond to the expectations of their stakeholders by including the impacts of their business activities on the environment and society in their strategic and operative management systems, as well as decision making process and their system of external reporting. On the other hand, a number of regulatory bodies have worked and are still working on establishing guidelines and standards for sustainability reporting in order to achieve a higher level of harmonization throughout the world. On the basis of an overview and comparison of different sustainability reporting frameworks, guidelines and standards, we show the direction in the development of sustainability reporting regulation and practice in the last two decades. Our study points out to a growing number of companies that nowadays prepare sustainability reports using different frameworks, as well as to particular challenges in future implementation.