Sustainability reporting is the process of reporting key sustainability and climate information to stakeholders. Also known as ESG, CSR or impact reporting, sustainability reporting encompasses data on environmental and climate impacts, social responsibility and governance.
Sustainability reporting is essential for businesses. Being transparent about your sustainable business practices helps to build trust and strengthens your company's reputation. It can help to attract ESG focused investors, ensure regulatory compliance and provide a system to ensure continuous improvement on key sustainability and climate goals.
The sustainability reporting landscape, often referred to as 'the alphabet soup of standards' due its many acronyms, keeps evolving. There are many different sustainability reporting frameworks and not all of them apply. Ecoact's overview of sustainability frameworks covers is not exhaustive but provides a helpful summary of the most important frameworks. It's a great starting point for learning about different frameworks and identifying which ones are relevant or will become relevant to your business.
If you prefer a visual overview of the main frameworks and are interested in comparisons between different frameworks, IFC's overview of global reporting frameworks provides a great tool.
Source: EcoAct (2024), IFC (2024)
Photo credit: IFC (2024), Remke van Zadelhoff (2022)
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