Business Sustainability in Asia

CHAPTER 10Business Sustainability Performance Reporting and Assurance

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Business organizations play important roles in society by interacting with a variety of constituencies in creating value for all stakeholders. Proper communication of sustainability performance is important in disclosing commitment to creating stakeholder value as well. Corporate reporting is a process by which public companies disclose their mandatory financial economic performance and voluntary non-financial information on governance, social, ethical and environmental (GSEE) activities to all stakeholders. Corporations report their economic activities and performance in compliance with regulatory requirements and contractual covenants to satisfy financial information demands by investors. Corporations also voluntarily disclose their non-financial information on GSEE matters for a variety of reasons including demand from stakeholders, as a means of avoiding the attention of regulatory bodies where sanctions for non-compliance are imminent, and as a means of signaling compliance with industrial codes and best practices. This chapter presents corporate reporting consisting of both financial economic sustainability performance (ESP) and non-financial GSEE sustainability performance reporting and assurance.

2. INTRODUCTION

The past decade has witnessed wide attention to the accountability and social responsibilities of corporations, caused by a wave of global financial scandals at the ...