Developing Guidance for Companies to Master Current Challenges in Sustainability Reporting: Two Case Studies from Banking and Tourism in Switzerland

Abstract

Sustainability reporting is an increasingly applied instrument for companies to systematically communicate about relevant impacts of their business operations on nature, society, and economy. Recently, both the new guideline of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI G4) and the Integrated Reporting (IR)-framework of the International Integrated Reporting Council have been published. As a consequence, companies worldwide face a changing reporting landscape and need to address, amongst other things, the following challenges: (i) the choice of most suitable guideline, (ii) the incorporation of the changes of GRI G4 and of the new requirements of IR in their reporting, (iii) a decision on the degree of integration (of sustainability topics in the financial report), and (iv) on how to customize the report in accordance with the different needs of specific target audiences. There is currently no approach that assists companies in mastering these issues.