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The Future of Sustainability Reporting as a Regulatory Mechanism

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Book cover Law and the Transition to Business Sustainability

Part of the book series: Perspectives on Sustainable Growth ((POSG))

Abstract

Sustainability reporting is now a mainstream activity among large, global corporations. The majority of the largest corporations in the United States now produce sustainability reports, and several European countries either mandate corporations to produce some form of sustainability reports or are in serious consideration of such legislation. Although leading standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative have made significant advancements in setting out the types of information that corporations should publicly disclose, mandatory sustainability reports will not work as an effective policy mechanism unless they are placed in a system that can effectively utilize the information and cause corporations to change their policies and practices. Using insights from New Governance regulation and meta-regulation, this paper examines the current sustainability reporting industry, and explores potential breakdown points (e.g., conflicts of interest in information intermediaries) and possible future developments.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The IRRC states:

    At the heart of [Integrated Reporting] is the growing realization that a wide range of factors determine the value of an organization—some of these are financial or tangible in nature and are easy to account for in financial statements (e.g. property, cash), while many are not (e.g. people, natural resources, intellectual capital, market and regulatory context, competition, energy security). [Integrated Reporting] reflects the broad and longer-term consequences of the decisions organizations make, based on a wide range of factors, in order to create value over time.

    IIRC (2013a)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    David Hess

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  1. David Hess
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Correspondence to David Hess .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Penn State University Smeal College of Business, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Daniel R. Cahoy

  2. Penn State University Dickinson College of Law, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA

    Jamison E. Colburn

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Hess, D. (2014). The Future of Sustainability Reporting as a Regulatory Mechanism. In: Cahoy, D., Colburn, J. (eds) Law and the Transition to Business Sustainability. Perspectives on Sustainable Growth. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04723-2_7

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