The first week of August 2025 marks my fourth week as a sustainability intern at a large consulting company in Belgium. I began my business studies last year, where I became acquainted with the term "sustainability report", the standards, and the system.
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As an accounting major, I am already well-versed in financial reports, which include all the key statements: statement of financial position (balance sheet), statement of profit and loss, statement of other comprehensive income, statement of changes in equity for the period, statement of cash flows for the period, and, last but not least, the notes. These are comparable, well-established, and standardized, allowing investors to properly analyze financial ratios and compare a company's performance both historically and across the industry. However, I must admit that I will only have one course in sustainability reporting (which is relatively new) in the upcoming semester.
Yet, the more I read sustainability reports from companies, whether or not they are CSRD-compliant, the more confused I become about what I am supposed to look for. Annual or financial reports are often over 100 pages long (mostly notes), with additional sections like summaries, governance, and outlooks. Still, there is always a condensed set of monetary information in the form of statements (as I mentioned earlier), usually around five pages, that are comparable and ready for analysis.
Meanwhile, in sustainability reporting, the content of the report is heavily based on double materiality assessments with stakeholders. The reports are more narrative, with greater flexibility in presenting tables and figures. Why can't there be a condensed, standardized summary (say, five pages of tables) that highlights the key points of the document for stakeholders to quickly review?
What do I want to know while reading a sustainability report? Roughly:
>> Environment
- Greenhouse gas emissions divided by scope (1, 2, and 3)
- Total electricity consumption divided by renewables and non-renewables
- Total water consumption
- Total waste generated and recycled
- Total area of operation in and outside biodiversity-sensitive areas
- Other types of pollution
- Employee headcount
- Employee turnover rate
- Pay gap by gender
- Number of work injuries
- Number of harassment cases
- Number of human rights violations
- Management by gender
- Number of corruption cases
- Trainings and certifications
The rest, I imagine, could be elaborated in "notes," just like in financial reports.
I am not at all doubting the positive impacts of sustainability reporting. In fact, I am a proponent of it. I believe in the value of this initiative and the ideal outcome that it will improve corporate behavior and help reduce our impacts on the planet. However, when the nature of the reporting is already descriptive and narrative-driven, a direct and concise overview, similar to the "statements" in financial reports, would benefit stakeholders reading the report.
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