Sustainability Reporting and Opportunities for Practitioners

INTRODUCTION

The nations across the world are in a race to become the most developed economies. This race has not only exploited the resources to the extent of their near extinction, but also resulted in the world becoming a gas chamber of pollution. People are now realising the irreversible damage that they have done to the environment and are trying to gather as much information as possible to understand the causal-effect relationship of this never-ending race. Investors and other stakeholders are holding the industries and companies responsible for the depletion of the quality of the environment. Their expectations are being evaluated by the regulatory authorities, and in return, relevant regulations have been passed for adequate disclosures by the companies. G20 nations in New Delhi also reiterated their commitment to achieve global net zero GHG emissions / carbon neutrality by or around mid-century in the recently concluded G20 Summit.

Globally, the companies are now disclosing how their operations are making use of the natural resources and what is the impact of the same on the neighbouring environment. There are many sustainability reporting frameworks which are commonly used by companies for disclosing their sustainability-related information, viz. GRI Standards issued by the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), Task Force on Climate-rela