Page 168 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

Chapter 14
Corporate Sustainability Reporting

Christian Herzig and Stefan Schaltegger

Abstract This chapter introduces the goals and benefits that are motivating
companies to report on their sustainability activities and provides an overview of the
historical development of sustainability reporting over recent decades. The presen-
tation of challenges in sustainability reporting is followed by a critical appraisal of
approaches to overcome these problems. The authors suggest a double-path approach
which combines the strategic inside-out approach of performance measurement and
management with the outside-in approach of adopting to the external requirements
and conclude with consequences for the field of sustainability communication.

Keywords Benefits and goals of sustainability reporting • Historical development
of sustainability reporting • Challenges in and approaches to sustainability reporting
• Outside-in and inside-out perspective

Introduction

Recent decades have witnessed an exponential growth in non- or extra-financial
reporting such as environmental, social or sustainability reporting. Mainly large
companies, but also SMEs, are informing their stakeholders more and more often
about their social and environmental performance through print-based reporting or
their websites. Sustainability reporting, as the most comprehensive and integrative
form of corporate reporting, has also gained attention among industry bodies and

C. Herzig (*)
International Centre for Corporate Social Responsibility, Nottingham University
Business School, Nottingham, UK
e-mail: christian.herzig@nottingham.ac.uk
S.Schaltegger

Center for Sustainability Management, Leuphana University Lueneburg,
Lueneburg, Germany

J. Godemann and G. Michelsen (eds.), Sustainability Communication: Interdisciplinary 151
Perspectives and Theoretical Foundations, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1697-1_14,
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011