№ 3/2020

Fìnansi Ukr. 2020 (3): 23–42https://doi.org/10.33763/finukr2020.03.023

MONITORING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

LOVINSKA Ljudmyla ¹

¹Kyiv National Economic University named after Vadym Hetman
OrcID ID : https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5427-7185

Some aspects of companies’ sustainability reporting

Non-financial reporting of companies is an innovation of companies’ accounting and information systems. It is aimed to publicly show the company’s contribution towards the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Based on the study of international regulatory acts in the area of non-financial reporting, the article describes the main trends in its development at the global level – companies’ reporting on their contribution towards the attainment of SDG. The formation of approaches for companies’ non-financial reporting began in the form of voluntary public international initiatives; the second stage is the regulation of the implementation of non-financial reporting (EU regulations and directives, mandatory for application in EU member states); the third stage is the development of the Guidance on core indicators for entity reporting on contribution towards implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals by the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Accounting Standards and Reporting standards (ISAR) under UNCTAD. Using the example of 12 foreign metallurgical companies, such qualitative characteristics of information disclosure in non-financial reporting of companies as to their contribution towards the attainment of sustainable development goals, as relevance and materiality, were investigated. It has been established that the non-financial reporting of selected companies does not sufficiently reflect the results of their activities in attaining SDGs. The average level of information disclosure in accordance with the GCI is only 48.48%. This fact gives a reason to draw the following conclusion: the reviewed reports are not relevant for assessment of the contribution of companies towards sustainable development. It is proved that the variety of types of non-financial reporting leads to decrease in its effectiveness in terms of performing the most important function - reflecting information on sustainable development; achievement of relevance of non-financial reporting is possible only on the basis of unification of its indicators and standardization of approaches to its compilation. The study, along with general scientific methods (induction, deduction, analysis and synthesis), also applied the methods of statistical sampling, comparison, expert estimates, associations and analogies

Keywords:Sustainable Development Goals, sustainable development reporting, non-financial reporting, qualitative characteristics, relevance, materiality

JEL: M41, M48, Q01

Lovinska L. . Some aspects of companies’ sustainability reporting / L. . Lovinska // Фінанси України. - 2020. - № 3. - C. 23-42.

Article original in Ukrainian (pp. 23 - 42)

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