Business reporting of Sustainable Development Goals: Global trends and implications

Chonlawan Thammaraksa, Caroline Herlev Gebara, Michael Zwicky Hauschild, Caroline Aggestam Pontoppidan and Alexis Laurent

Business Strategy and the Environment, 2024, vol. 33, issue 6, 5445-5462

Abstract: With a reported insufficient progress toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), improving knowledge on the uptake and use of SDGs within the private sector is imperative. To address this need, we examine the SDG reporting characteristics of 8500 companies using a global business and governance database. Our results show no correlation in reporting specific goals, which could impede progress toward other goals. A disconnection between corporate sustainability performances and SDG reporting is also observed, meaning companies may select and report specific SDGs arbitrarily without rooting them with actual sustainability performances. These findings question the motivation and effectiveness of current SDG reporting and call for more guidance on SDG indicator selection and performance assessment. Looking ahead, SDG communication practices are anticipated to change due to the advent of new corporate sustainability reporting regulations. We therefore call for continuous monitoring of SDG adoption, uptake, and communication in businesses.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3760

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:33:y:2024:i:6:p:5445-5462

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://onlinelibrary ... 1002/(ISSN)1099-0836

Access Statistics for this article

Business Strategy and the Environment is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Business Strategy and the Environment from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().