The SDGs and Non-Financial Disclosures of Energy Companies: The Italian Experience

Giuseppe Scandurra () and Antonio Thomas
Additional contact information
Giuseppe Scandurra: Department of Management Studies and Quantitative Methods, University of Naples Parthenope, 80134 Naples, Italy
Antonio Thomas: Department of Business and Economics, University of Naples Parthenope, 80134 Naples, Italy

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-17

Abstract: For some years, energy companies (ECs) have been increasingly pressured to address a broader set of social and environmental responsibilities that respond adequately to citizens’ expectations, local and international regulatory frameworks, and transnational initiatives such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Thus, ECs have invested considerable resources to reduce the environmental and social impact in their activities. This study aims to verify the measures that ECs have actually adopted by analyzing their social and sustainability reports. These reports constitute an official tool, and they are also supported by specific mandatory regulations such as EU Directive 2014/95, in which companies provide a non-financial disclosure aimed at demonstrating how their pursuit of the conditions of economic and financial equilibrium is increasingly and closely linked with the ability to assure sustainable development. This study considers eight major ECs operating in the Italian market. It compares the findings with two important foreign ECs that draw up a very structured and innovative report: the integrated report. The outcomes confirm that these ECs are making significant progress in the environmental and social spheres, although the path to full sustainable development is still unreached. The policy implications emerging from this study can contribute to this direction.

Keywords: energy companies; sustainable development; integrated report (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/12882/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/17/12882/ (text/html)

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:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:17:p:12882-:d:1225314

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().