SDG water disclosure around the globe

Md Alamgir Jalil, Silvia Gaia and Chaoyuan She

Chapter 23 in Research Handbook on Sustainability Reporting, 2024, pp 418-430 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter investigates how companies disclose their commitment to achieving water-related SDGs, by analysing the quantity and quality (in terms of tone, readability and length) of the narrative disclosures provided in corporate sustainability reports concerning water-related SDGs (SDG 6 and SDG 14). By focussing on a sample of 143 international companies operating in the period 2016-2020 in sectors characterised by high or medium operational sensitivity to water, this study shows a very shallow engagement of corporations with SDG water-related disclosures. It also shows that when SDG water-related disclosures are provided, companies prefer to discuss more environmental aspects of water disclosure (SDG 14) than social aspects (SDG 6). Finally, our findings reveal that disclosures on water-related SDGs are biased, as firms tend to highlight more positive aspects of their water-related performance, and use texts that are more complex and difficult to understand.

Keywords: Business and Management; Economics and Finance; Environment; Sustainable Development Goals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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