Sustainability Reporting in Latvia: Management Views

Sustainability reporting in Latvia is a comparatively recent development. In spite of a growing number of companies undertaking different social responsibility activities, only few of them report this. Mostly, companies choose to communicate their sustainability activities through their web page. Mainly large companies with considerable environmental and social impact and listed joint-stock companies, which are required to do so by stock exchange regulation, undertake efforts to communicate their responsibility activities. Both the lack of resources and stock exchange activity and a lack of interest from civil society explain why so few companies in Latvia invest in sustainability reporting, even if they pursue sustainability practices. Society’s awareness of corporate sustainability issues is raised by different public events, e.g., the annual CSR conference and Responsible Business Week, the national competition Sustainability Index, and others. The aim of this research is to understand the attitude of the management of Latvian enterprises toward sustainability issues to better explain the low level of activity in sustainability reporting. The results of the study show that approximately half of the respondents consider sustainability issues important for their business, but only around 40% of the respondents’ companies have developed CSR strategies. The main sustainability activities concern employee work conditions, job satisfaction, and relations with the clients, and sustainability reporting is frequently considered a tool for enhancing the company’s image. The increasing attention to sustainability issues in business education and NGO’s activities suggest that sustainability actions and reporting will be pursued by more companies in Latvia.