Abstract
This chapter presents, in a descriptive manner, the interrelation of the sustainability reporting concepts and the sustainability disclosure through internal and external stakeholders. The main objectives of this chapter are approaching the disclosure of environmental information, presenting the views of the stakeholders on the content and format of environmental reporting. The factors underlying the disclosure of the environmental information and the impact of these, including the views stakeholders on the content and presentation format of the environmental reporting, are presented and analyzed. A case study is also presented in order to highlight the disclosure and presentation of the environmental report of an industrial entity and the importance of the accounting information provided. This chapter brings a theoretical contribution to expand the knowledge on the environmental disclosure and reporting approaches. The authors' approaches remain open to the expansion of these issues at both national and international level and both in the academia and business area.
TopThe concept of Sustainability Reporting has begun its development since the first environmental reporting in 1980 (IISD, 1980). Since the beginning, this concept has also had other approaches: (1) reporting the corporate responsibility (CRR) used for describing the performance, or (2) the Triple Bottom Line reporting (TBL) that highlighted three aspects: profit (economic), people (social) and planet (environment) (Elkington, 1998) indicating the company's commitment to the stakeholders. According to G3.1, the economic dimension of sustainability refers to the impact of the organization on the economic conditions of the stakeholders and on the local, national and global economic systems (GRI, 2011).
By reporting to the existing literature theories related to the sustainability reporting, there have been identified the following:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Environment: The environment in which a company operates, including air, water, soil, flora, fauna, man, and relationships between them.
Stakeholders: Groups interested in disclosing sustainable information contained in the company’s sustainability report.
Sustainability: The current economic and social development without damaging the natural environment.
Environmental Performance: Results that can be measured by a company's environmental management.
Sustainability Disclosure: Disclosure of the information contained in the sustainability report according to internal or external requirements (stakeholders).
Sustainability Report: ( SR): Report on the environmental situation of a company based on environmental indicators.
Emission: Transfer of atmospheric pollution from the source to the free atmosphere.