Business Sustainability, Corporate Governance, and Organizational Ethics

CHAPTER 6Drivers and Sources of Business Sustainability Initiatives

1. Introduction

Many public companies now voluntarily manage, measure, recognize, and disclose their commitments, events, and transactions relevant to all five economic, governance, social, ethical, and environmental (EGSEE) dimensions of sustainability performance. More than 15,000 organizations worldwide are currently disclosing various EGSEE dimensions of their sustainability performance. According to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), in 2000, fewer than 50 global companies disclosed sustainability information on a voluntary basis. By 2005, this number increased to 300 organizations, over 2,000 in 2010, more than 5,000 in 2014, and above 15,000 in 2017, and the numbers keep growing.¹ Although there is no mandatory guidance for sustainability performance reporting at this time, there are several guidelines for sustainability reporting, including the reporting frameworks released by GRI, integrated reporting promoted by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), and the guidelines established by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). An alternative to mandatory sustainability reports is to standardize sustainability performance reporting and assurance by considering (1) standardizing disparate sustainability reports that are currently issued; (2) establishing a globally accepted reporting framework for sustainability information that creates uniformity in objectively reporting ...