Sustainability Reporting: Catalyst for Organizational and Professional Change
Organisations, regulators, the professions and education institutions need to address the grand challenge of sustainable development. While voluntary initiatives have proven their benefits, but also their limitations, we now witness an increase in the number of regulatory initiatives on sustainab...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Editura ASE
2025-08-01
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| Series: | Amfiteatru Economic |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.amfiteatrueconomic.ro/temp/Article_3439.pdf |
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| Summary: | Organisations, regulators, the professions and education institutions need to address the
grand challenge of sustainable development. While voluntary initiatives have proven their
benefits, but also their limitations, we now witness an increase in the number of regulatory
initiatives on sustainability, particularly at the EU level. Thus, in 2022, the Corporate
Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) was issued as part of the European “Green
Deal” (amending and supplementing previous non-financial reporting requirements), with
applicability from January 1, 2024 (along with the European Sustainability Reporting
Standards). This Directive has emerged in parallel with other initiatives in the area of
sustainability reporting (such as Sustainable Development Goals – SDGs, Taxonomy).
Although the regulations focus on corporate reporting, in general, their objective is to drive
organisations towards transparent and relevant reporting from the point of view of a variety
of stakeholders, towards more sustainable production and business processes. Conceived as
an external reporting regulation, CSRD inevitably has consequences for internal reporting,
organisational strategy and processes in order to generate, collect, analyse and present the
necessary information. As such, this regulation constrains and changes organisational
policies and procedures, products and services, professions, and ultimately externally
reported information. It is estimated that up to half of the global workforce will be affected
by changes related to sustainability, which implies significant adjustments in organisations,
management practices, changes in education to develop the necessary skills. Most
companies approach CSRD implementation as a multi-departmental effort (sustainability,
accounting, finance, procurement, IT, etc.). Sustainability reporting therefore becomes on
the one hand a team effort (with its challenges), but also a new field that can be attached to
existing professions (e.g. accounting profession) or lead to the creation of new professions
(e.g. sustainability manager). Entities can be expected to face a multitude of challenges in
implementing CSRD, such as data availability and quality, value chain complexity, staff
time and knowledge, deadlines, technology, costs, interaction with other regulations, and
management involvement. Moreover, the experience with previous non-financial reporting
requirements shows the difficulties faced by organisations, as well as the impact of
different institutional actors (government, investors, professional bodies, consultants,
academia, etc.) and factors (culture, legal framework, etc.) on how and to what extent
companies change and incorporate these requirements |
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| ISSN: | 1582-9146 2247-9104 |