Sustainable Development Goals Disclosure Practices through Integrated Reporting: An Empirical analysis on European Financial Institutions

Abstract

The goal of the study is to investigate the state of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) disclosure in European financial institutions’ Integrated Reports. As a research approach, manual content analysis was adopted. The study developed a disclosure index as a research tool comprised of the 17 SDGs. The empirical analysis shows that the most disclosed goals were SDG13 (Climate Action), where all the reports disclosed the measures taken by the companies to achieve this goal, followed by SDG7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), as 10 reports disclosed detailed information on this goal. Also, the results provide evidence that SDG2 (Zero Hunger), SDG14 (Life Below Water), SDG15 (Life on Land), and SDG16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions) came in the last place, respectively. Practically, the study encourages companies in all sectors to adopt the SDGs in their integrated strategy to create better value for stakeholders.