Companies today face increasing stakeholder and regulatory pressure to not only integrate environmental and social sustainability in their business practices but also transparently communicate to the relevant stakeholders and community at large. Consequently, sustainability reporting has evolved from a voluntary practice to an expected activity, and even mandatory requirement in many jurisdictions.
These recent developments have seen sustainability reporting, also referred to as ESG reporting or "non-financial" disclosures, increase both in terms of breadth and depth, while at the same time becoming more standardised. Hence companies are required to build capacity, especially in the form of human resource with the right knowledge, skills, and competence in order to meet the ever-increasing expectations of sustainability related communications.
In this background, the aim of the course is to introduce key frameworks and concepts to the students in order to develop a critical mindset in the domain of sustainability and ESG reporting. The course will introduce the concept of sustainability reporting, guidelines around sustainability or ESG reporting, implications of such ESG parameters for companies (e.g. ESG rating, sustainable finance) and relevant regulatory standards and frameworks. The course covers sustainability reporting from both the producer’s perspective and the consumer’s perspective as well as it takes into consideration both the positive and the normative approach to sustainability reporting practices. Given this is an evolving landscape, the course focuses on providing students with the conceptual understanding of sustainability reporting, so that they are well prepared for future developments. In this way, the course is relevant for students who expect to work directly or indirectly with sustainability, for instance within accounting and auditing, finance, consulting, strategy and so on.
In terms of detail course plan, first, the course introduces the what and why of sustainability reporting i.e., the concept of sustainability and sustainability reporting in general, how it ties together with the value creation of a company and the wider importance it has to the society. Next, we introduce the concept of "materiality" - an essential topic within sustainability reporting that forms the basis for how a company has to report. Subsequently, a main section of the course concerns the three major EU directives and the upcoming European Sustainability Reporting Standards. This section also discusses international reporting frameworks that are used worldwide (e.g. GRI, SASB). Moving away from the producer perspective, the course further covers how to audit sustainability reporting and how to analyse a company’s sustainability performance. Finally, the course also looks at how sustainability reporting can be used as a tool for management control.