Integrated processing of sustainability accounting reports: a multi-utility company case study

Abstract

Purpose Organisations rarely adopted integrated processes for developing sustainability reports, although the literature and the business context recommend them for efficient reporting to describe the economic, environmental and/or social impacts of organisational activities. Based on system dynamics, this paper aims to propose an integrated process for producing sustainability reports. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted action research involving a multi-utility enterprise. This company offers a wide range of public services covering integrated water utilities, environmental hygiene service, transport and mobility and cemeterial management. Findings The main steps of a process for defining and representing integrated sustainability reports are described, giving a concrete practical example of how the procedure can be applied to a multi-utility company. Originality/value System dynamics used as the major contributor to developing integrated sustainability reports also takes into account the nonlinear behaviour of complex systems. Results and implications are assessed from an integrated thinking and reporting perspective.

Understanding integrated thinking: evidence from the field, the development of a framework and avenues for future research

“…The rise and development of ITR practices are occurring in a context where the concepts and principles that define how contemporary organizations plan, measure and report their performances are being questioned and redesigned across the world (Andon et al , 2015; Hall et al , 2015; Humphrey et al , 2017). These debates have regained momentum in the aftermath of the financial crisis when the notion and functioning of capitalism, the ultimate purpose of the business, as well as the concept of corporate value creation (Porter and Kramer, 2011), have all been questioned and placed under the spotlight.…”

Sustainable Development Goals and healthy foods: perspective from the food system

“…Specifically, sustainability reporting is linked with CSR and with the idea that business activity must strive for a profit while being responsible towards environmental, social and economic issues (Carroll, 1999). Also, the development of non-financial reporting represents a tool to complete and support the information provided by companies in their financial statements (Athanasakou et al , 2020; Paolone et al , 2020).…”

Do well-reputed companies carry out higher quality social reporting? An empirical approach

“…For all the above reasons, the growing interest in SR quality dimension is not surprising. Dienes et al (2016, p. 155) demand a comprehensive vision of sustainability reporting in order to avoid "the risk of misinterpreting the results", and Paolone et al (2020) include the need to give guarantees to the quality disclosed as a necessary step in the creation of a sustainability report. An adequate disclosure policy both in terms of quantity and quality is to be expected in both types of disclosures if we aim at efficient reputation management (G€ urel, 2012) due to reputation being based "on the use of perceptions of past behaviour and performance to evaluate how the organization will behave or perform in the future" (Duff, 2016, p. 168).…”

“…Indeed, SR can be seen as a way to increase the non-financial performance of companies, which is favoured due to the way in which IC is disclosed in integrated reports (Beretta et al, 2019). In this regard, there are several authors who highlight the importance of integrated reports as a means of disclosing social information and, consequently, IC (Paolone et al, 2020;Camodeca et al, 2018).…”