Sustainable development goals in the sustainability report

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Abstract

Sustainability is something voluntary that the company implements, with the aim of creating value, regardless of achieving regulatory compliance. The 2030 Agenda identifies the guidelines for solving the problem of unsustainable development and, with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), encourages companies towards sustainability. To evaluate companies’ commitment to sustainability it is necessary to report on the SDGs. Even if the SDGs cannot be obtained without the companies’ contribution, only recently, research literature has begun to consider their fundamental role in their achievement. For this reason, this study aims to verify whether disclosure on sustainability, for Italian listed companies in the period 2021–2022, is aligned with the SDGs and whether there is a relationship between the main performance indices and the level of disclosure. Descriptive statistics methods and econometric models were evaluated to achieve the research objective. The data used for the research was collected through the content analysis carried out on the sustainability reports. The study contributes to the theoretical development of the topic of sustainability disclosure and the SDGs. The developed positioning matrix is useful for managers and investors to better understand how each company positions itself in relation to SDG disclosure and which of the three sustainability areas is most reported. However, for sustainability to truly be put into practice, it must become part of the corporate culture.

Keywords: Disclosure, Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs, Performance, Sustainability, Corporate Strategies, Triple Bottom Line, Agenda 2030, Sustainability Report, Listed Companies, Content Analysis

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — G.S., G.B., M.Ruisi, and M.Rija; Methodology — G.S., G.B., M.Ruisi, and M.Rija; Formal Analysis — G.S., G.B., M.Ruisi, and M.Rija; Data Curation — G.S., G.B., M.Ruisi, and M.Rija; Writing — Original Draft — G.S., G.B., M.Ruisi, and M.Rija; Writing — Review & Editing — G.S., G.B., M.Ruisi, and M.Rija; Visualization — G.S., G.B., M.Ruisi, and M.Rija; Supervision — G.S., G.B., M.Ruisi, and M.Rija; Project Administration — G.S., G.B., M.Ruisi, and M.Rija.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: M14, Q56

Received: 06.03.2024
Accepted: 25.06.2024
Published online: 01.07.2024

How to cite this paper: Sicoli, G., Bronzetti, G., Ruisi, M., & Rija, M. (2024). Sustainable development goals in the sustainability report. Corporate Ownership & Control, 21(3), 47–58. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv21i3art4