Konferenzbeitrag
Voluntary and Mandatory Company Sustainability Reporting: A Comparison of Approaches
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Datum
2014
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BIS-Verlag
Zusammenfassung
This paper investigates the adoption of an Enterprise Architecture (EA) for improving the effectiveness
of sustainability reporting through facilitating business-IT alignment and the incorporation of
sustainability management and reporting into the strategy of a company. The paper highlights
significant differences between voluntary and mandatory reporting of companies in South Africa with
regards to integrating sustainability practices into their organization. In particular, the approach these
companies take with regards to the use of EA for the support of strategic sustainability thinking is
investigated. A survey of 28 South African companies was conducted to determine the integration of
sustainability and environmental information and reporting into a company’s EA. The results reveal an
imbalance in the reporting focus. Economic reporting is still the most dominant type of reporting
compared with environmental and social reporting, whilst companies reporting voluntarily seem to be
more progressed in terms of integrating environmental information into their EA.