Business Sustainability in Asia

CHAPTER 11Emerging Issues in Sustainability Performance, Reporting and Assurance

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Business sustainability is gaining considerable attention as socially responsible investors prefer to invest in sustainable and socially responsible corporations while regulators worldwide recommend and/or demand that public companies disclose the non-financial dimensions of their sustainability performance in areas of governance, social, ethical and environmental (GSEE), and diversity activities. Business sustainability with a keen focus on the achievement of long-term stakeholder value creation is gaining momentum with investors with long-term investment horizons and business organizations that value their customers' satisfaction, employees' welfare and social and environmental responsibilities. Business organizations worldwide and those in Asia will be encouraged and/or required to disclose their non-financial GSEE performance along with financial economic sustainability performance. This chapter presents future trends in sustainability performance, reporting and assurance worldwide and particularly in Asia by exploring the best practices of sustainability in moving toward the achievement of profit-with-purpose companies, the use of the Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) in sustainability reporting and the use of continuous auditing for sustainability assurance.

2. INTRODUCTION

Starting in 2017, more than 6,000 public companies in Europe are required to disclose ...