Sustainability Reporting Practices of Indian Corporate Sector: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Since the early 1990’s there has been a growing trend by large companies to publicly issue formal reports containing information on the companies, social and environmental issues. Although sustainability reporting is still a voluntary but now a days it has become popular among large scale corporations, the reporting practices are now remain strictly voluntary, but it should be made mandatory as many governments have already made the SR mandatory. It enables organizations having different features like shapes and sizes, including public agencies and companies to measure, manage and publicly disclose the social, environmental and economic performance in a sustainable manner. The contents of sustainability reports emphasizes more on guidelines of reporting than information on stakeholder engagement, materiality, targets and future plans. No doubt, reporting practices is widely accepted, it is also observed that the activities of the corporate on society, stakeholders, its citizens and the environment has a considerable impact not only on present but also upon the future. Sustainability disclosure reports aims, and allows for improvement on, those issues which are closely related to a corporation's environmental and social impact and impact on company's financial performance.