Redefining sustainability reporting processes and structures
How the German Mittelstand is preparing for the CSRD
Publication date
2024
Secondary publication date
2026-06-12
Document type
Konferenzbeitrag
Author
Organisational unit
Conference
4th Annual Conference of the Academy of Sustainable Finance, Accounting, Accountability and Governance (ASFAAG 2024) ; Athens, Greece (hybrid) ; July 1–2, 2024
Publisher
Universitätsbibliothek der HSU/UniBw H
Part of the university bibliography
✅
Language
English
Keyword
Sustainability Reporting
CSRD
ESRS
Reporting structures
Reporting processes
Abstract
Purpose: Following the implementation of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in the EU, the number of organizations required to report sustainability information has increased significantly. As the accompanying European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) indirectly require companies to integrate material sustainability aspects in management processes and decision-making, this paper analyses how companies can strategically design and adapt their sustainability reporting structures and processes.
Design/methodology/approach: To analyse how first-time preparers can integrate and implement sustainability reporting processes and structures, interviews with 13 sustainability managers from German companies and 7 consultants and auditors were conducted.
Findings: The findings indicate, that sustainability needs to be integrated into the organization’s management and decision-making processes requiring a sustainability management system to be implemented. This should lead to the sustainability report becoming a by-product of the sustainability management system. For this, a balance between centralized and decentralized sustainability structures and management is crucial. However, the greatest constraint to this are time pressure and limited resources.
Originality/value: The changing regulatory landscape in the EU regarding sustainability reporting opens a new research field. This paper addresses the current challenges of first-time preparers. By combining interview data from both preparers and consultants, a broad practical perspective is generated and supplemented by theoretical insights from organizational design to provide practical implications addressing the need to (re-)define sustainability reporting structures and processes.
Design/methodology/approach: To analyse how first-time preparers can integrate and implement sustainability reporting processes and structures, interviews with 13 sustainability managers from German companies and 7 consultants and auditors were conducted.
Findings: The findings indicate, that sustainability needs to be integrated into the organization’s management and decision-making processes requiring a sustainability management system to be implemented. This should lead to the sustainability report becoming a by-product of the sustainability management system. For this, a balance between centralized and decentralized sustainability structures and management is crucial. However, the greatest constraint to this are time pressure and limited resources.
Originality/value: The changing regulatory landscape in the EU regarding sustainability reporting opens a new research field. This paper addresses the current challenges of first-time preparers. By combining interview data from both preparers and consultants, a broad practical perspective is generated and supplemented by theoretical insights from organizational design to provide practical implications addressing the need to (re-)define sustainability reporting structures and processes.
Description
Der Beitrag erschien erstmalig 2024 als Teil der Dissertation der Autorin. Belegexemplare befinden sich im Bestand der UB der HSU.
Version
Author's original
Access right on openHSU
Open access