Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Performance: Reporting Initiatives of Oil and Gas Companies in Central and Eastern Europe

The need to promote sustainable development generates a paradigm shift in the business world. The business strategies of the companies are reconfigured, the environment, social and governance issues being observed so that the interests of the stakeholders are promoted and not only the maximization of profit for the shareholders is pursued. Large corporations are the promoters of complex social responsibility programs and are increasingly concerned with reporting their environmental and social performances that are followed by stakeholders. Thus, on the capital market, portfolio investors do not make decisions exclusively based on financial performance, but also consider the social and environmental involvement of the issuers. In the corporate landscape, oil and gas companies stand out both for the negative externalities they generate, especially for the environment, but also for their efforts to improve non-financial performance. This chapter analyses the non-financial behaviour of oil and gas companies in Central and Eastern Europe. The chosen research method was the content analysis of the sustainability, CSR or non-financial performance reports as well as the content of the companies' websites that have different sections such as “Sustainable Development”, “CSR”. The results of the study demonstrate the increasing involvement of these companies in promoting the principles of sustainable development and the increase of their concerns regarding the attitude of stakeholders and the reporting of results regarding non-financial performance.