Page 175 - Sustainability Communication Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Theoritical Foundations

158 C. Herzig and S. Schaltegger

• The comparability of ecological and social performance information published
in sustainability reports is often limited. A generally accepted standard about
what information should be disclosed and in what format is missing. Moreover,
the procedures and practices of data collection and information management can
vary over time or between companies.
• Finally, sustainability reporting still remains more common with large and pub-
licly listed companies. Since small and medium sized enterprises constitute a
large part of the economy and (in total) account for much of the social and envi-
ronmental effects of business, a particular challenge seems to lie in encouraging
them to engage with forms of sustainability disclosure and reporting, e.g. by
emphasising the benefits and keeping the costs of sustainability reporting low.

These challenges complicate the development of confidence and credibility in
communication processes within companies, as well as between enterprises and
their stakeholders. The next section provides an overview of current developments
relevant to overcoming the problems discussed above.

Current Developments

Guidelines and Standards

Various national and international bodies have published guidelines, standards,
regulations or sets of criteria aiming at helping to harmonise sustainability report-
ing and providing guidance for management in the reporting process. A guideline is
a non-binding guidance document published by a governmental or non-governmen-
tal organisation and often based on practical experiences. Guidelines often precede
standards or regulations. Reporting regulations are issued by associations and min-
istries and have a binding character (see next section). They can be based on stan-
dards which, in turn, are developed by standardisation organisations and are a
common basis for certification procedures.
The G3 guidelines of the GRI (2006) are certainly the most generally accepted and
universally applied sustainability reporting framework and considered to be a de-
facto standard. Other bodies which have developed international guidelines and stan-
dards are, for example, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development
(WBCSD 2002) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO 2006).
Comprehensive overviews of international guidelines and standards are provided by
Adams and Narayanan (2007) and Leipziger (2010). Voluntary guidelines and stan-
dards at the regional or national level are issued by many governments as well as
non-governmental bodies such as industry associations or other private institutions. In
Europe there are also guidelines specifically addressing environmental statements.
The various guidance documents can differ in the particular aspects of sustain-
ability, the sector and the size of companies that they address as well as in the extent
to which they focus on reporting principles and report content. Sector-specific