The Future of Sustainability Reporting as a Regulatory Mechanism

Abstract

Sustainability reporting is now a mainstream activity among large, global corporations. The majority of the largest corporations in the United States now produce sustainability reports, and several European countries either mandate corporations to produce some form of sustainability reports or are in serious consideration of such legislation. Although leading standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative have made significant advancements in setting out the types of information that corporations should publicly disclose, mandatory sustainability reports will not work as an effective policy mechanism unless they are placed in a system that can effectively utilize the information and cause corporations to change their policies and practices. This brief essay provides an overview of the current sustainability reporting industry, and sets out some potential breakdown points and possible future developments.

Keywords: corporate social responsibility, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), social reporting, sustainability reporting

JEL Classification: K20, K29, M14