What is a sustainability report?

Through sustainability reports, companies communicate their performance and impacts across a wide range of sustainability topics, addressing environmental, social, and governance parameters. This enables companies to be more transparent about the risks and opportunities they face, providing stakeholders with greater insight into performance beyond financial results.

Building and maintaining trust in companies and governments is essential for creating a sustainable global economy and a prosperous world. Every day, decisions are made by companies and governments that have direct impacts on their stakeholders, such as decisions related to financial institutions, labor organizations, civil society, and citizens, and the level of trust they have in them. These decisions are rarely based solely on financial information and often take into account risks and opportunities related to a variety of short- and long-term factors. Sustainability topics are increasingly integrated into these decision-making processes.

Benefits of sustainability reports:

• Increase understanding of risks and opportunities;

• Emphasize the link between financial and non-financial performance;

• Influence strategy, management policies, and long-term business plans;

• Streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve efficiency;

• Compare and evaluate sustainability performance against laws, standards, codes, performance standards, and voluntary initiatives;

• Help the company avoid public environmental, social, and governance failures;

• Allow for comparisons of performance internally, as well as between organizations and sectors.

External benefits may include:

• Mitigating negative environmental, social, and governance impacts, thereby improving reputation and brand loyalty;

• Enabling external stakeholders to understand the true value of the organization, alongside tangible and intangible assets;

• Demonstrating how the organization influences and is influenced by expectations regarding sustainable development.