Sustainable development, disclosure to stakeholders and the Sustainable Development Goals: Evidence from Brazilian banks' non‐financial reports

Abstract

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are ambitious global targets proposed by 2030 Agenda. The private sector should contribute to these goals, and the non‐financial disclosure reports is the primary means to inform stakeholders about the impacts of corporate activities on the environment and society, as well as their contributions to sustainable development. Therefore, measuring the quality of these reports is an essential task in order to propose improvements and identify the level of transparency. This article analyses 11 non‐financial reports of the largest banks operating in Brazil, using a methodological approach divided into two stages: the sustainability disclosure matrix and the measurement system. The first stage is based on the analysis of the material topics provided for in the reports under the Global Reporting Initiative standard and their relationship with the SDGs. The second stage quantitatively measures the different degrees of quality of the information disclosed for each disclosure topic, generating the disclosure quality performance indicator. This indicator allows indicating how pro sustainability a corporation is. The work contributes by proposing a quality classification of the non‐financial report, besides revealing the direct relationship existing between the number of material topics reported and the quality indicator. The main result of the empirical analysis is that Brazilian banks' reports are of low quality. Some practical implications: it was found that the more information disclosed, the better the quality of reporting; and the use of integrated reporting as a tool for disclosure of non‐financial results is suggested.

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