Integrated Sustainability Reporting: Linking Environmental and Social Information to Value Creation Processes

by Laura Bini, Marco Bellucci

Overview

This book proposes an integrated approach to sustainability reporting, the goal being to overcome certain limitations of the well-established additive approach, where the reporting of environmental, social and economic issues is sequential, but separate. It argues that, in order to successfully communicate its commitment to sustainability, a company should report on how environmental and social issues impact its way of doing business, namely its business model, contributing to value creation. Thus, a reporting framework for business models that encompasses sustainability is presented. In turn, a number of illustrative examples are examined to show how business model reporting could be optimally used to provide effective and integrated sustainability reporting.

The book also offers a broad analysis of corporate sustainability reporting, which includes a discussion of the theoretical background, an explanation of why companies provide sustainability reporting, a description of the current regulatory framework for sustainability disclosure, and a review of sustainability reporting literature that shows the main characteristics of sustainability disclosure practices.

Given its scope, the book will be of interest to all researchers and practitioners working for companies or organizations that aim to support, implement and improve their sustainability reporting, by adopting a more integrated approach that interconnects environmental and social aspects with the economic and financial results via the business model. The book also offers a valuable reference guide for social science researchers, including PhD students, interested in a discussion of the latest literature on sustainability, corporate social responsibility, and the communication of business models.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783030249533
Publisher:	Springer International Publishing
Publication date:	08/20/2019
Edition description:	1st ed. 2020
Pages:	150
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Laura Bini is a Lecturer in Accounting at the School of Economics and Management, University of Florence. She received her Master’s Degree in Accounting and Management and her PhD in Accounting from the University of Florence. Her research interests are in the areas of corporate disclosure to financial markets, corporate social responsibility, non-financial and narrative disclosure. She teaches courses on both accounting and financial statement analysis.

Marco Bellucci is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Accounting at the University of Florence. He holds a PhD in Business Administration and Management from the University of Pisa and has been involved in several studies and research projects on dialogic accounting, sustainability reporting, corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship and non-profit organizations. He is also an Associate Editor for Business Ethics: A European Review.

Table of Contents

Introduction.- Accounting for Sustainability.- Anchoring Sustainability Disclosure to Value Creation.- Operationalizing Business Models for an Integrated Sustainability Reporting.- Conclusions.