How do companies measure and report corporate sustainability? A comparison among the most innovative European companies

The field of measuring and reporting CS practices currently faces relevant challenges. First, although important steps have been taken towards transparency in reporting CS practices, there is still significant flexibility in terms of the international sustainability frameworks that guide the reporting, the key performance indicators (KPIs) that need to be included, and even the specific aspects that must be reported. Second, there is a wide range of CS metrics rooted in different methodologies and assumptions that still lack standardization and convergence. These two challenges make it difficult to compare companies and understand their evolution towards greater sustainability. Based on these challenges in measuring and reporting CS practices, this study has two objectives: (1) analysing companies’ CS reporting to determine the trends in terms of the terminology, EU regulations, international sustainability frameworks, ratings and indices, KPIs, and materiality approaches used, and (2) comparing the CS metrics of some of the most relevant rating agencies to identify their similarities and differences. To achieve these objectives, we collected data on the 250 EU companies ranked better in the 2021 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. Overall, this work aims to contribute to advancing greater homogenisation in the measurement and reporting of CS.