A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities
Sustainability reporting is becoming more and more widespread among companies aiming at disclosing their contribution to sustainable development and gaining legitimacy from stakeholders. This is more significant for firms operating in a public services’ context and mainly when supplying a fundamenta...
Main Authors: | , , |
---|---|
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
MDPI AG
2018-02-01
|
Series: | Sustainability |
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/2/433 |
id |
doaj-83486e39ec77408898fa6717b18d56ab |
---|---|
record_format |
Article |
spelling |
doaj-83486e39ec77408898fa6717b18d56ab2020-11-25T00:01:33ZengMDPI AGSustainability2071-10502018-02-0110243310.3390/su10020433su10020433A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water UtilitiesSilvia Cantele0Thomas A. Tsalis1Ioannis E. Nikolaou2Department of Business Administration, University of Verona, 37129 Verona, ItalyDepartment of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi 67100, GreeceDepartment of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi 67100, GreeceSustainability reporting is becoming more and more widespread among companies aiming at disclosing their contribution to sustainable development and gaining legitimacy from stakeholders. This is more significant for firms operating in a public services’ context and mainly when supplying a fundamental public resource, like water utilities. While the literature on sustainability reporting in the water sector is scant, there is an increasing need to study the usefulness and quality of its sustainability disclosures to adequately inform the stakeholders about the activities of water utilities to protect this fundamental resource and general sustainable development. This article presents a novel assessment framework based on a scoring technique and an empirical analysis on the sustainability reports of Italian water utilities carried out through it. The results highlight a low level of disclosure on the sustainability indicators suggested by the main sustainability reporting guidelines (Global Reporting Initiative, (GRI), and Sustainability Accounting Standard Board, (SASB)); most companies tend to disclose only qualitative information and fail to inform about some material aspects of water management, such as water recycled, network resilience, water sources, and effluent quality. These findings indicate that sustainability reporting is mainly considered as a communication tool, rather than a performance measurement and an accountability tool, but also suggest the need for a new and international industry-specific sustainability reporting standard.http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/2/433sustainability reportingbenchmarking/scoring techniquessustainability disclosurewater utilities |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Silvia Cantele Thomas A. Tsalis Ioannis E. Nikolaou |
spellingShingle |
Silvia Cantele Thomas A. Tsalis Ioannis E. Nikolaou A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities Sustainability sustainability reporting benchmarking/scoring techniques sustainability disclosure water utilities |
author_facet |
Silvia Cantele Thomas A. Tsalis Ioannis E. Nikolaou |
author_sort |
Silvia Cantele |
title |
A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities |
title_short |
A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities |
title_full |
A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities |
title_fullStr |
A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities |
title_full_unstemmed |
A New Framework for Assessing the Sustainability Reporting Disclosure of Water Utilities |
title_sort |
new framework for assessing the sustainability reporting disclosure of water utilities |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sustainability |
issn |
2071-1050 |
publishDate |
2018-02-01 |
description |
Sustainability reporting is becoming more and more widespread among companies aiming at disclosing their contribution to sustainable development and gaining legitimacy from stakeholders. This is more significant for firms operating in a public services’ context and mainly when supplying a fundamental public resource, like water utilities. While the literature on sustainability reporting in the water sector is scant, there is an increasing need to study the usefulness and quality of its sustainability disclosures to adequately inform the stakeholders about the activities of water utilities to protect this fundamental resource and general sustainable development. This article presents a novel assessment framework based on a scoring technique and an empirical analysis on the sustainability reports of Italian water utilities carried out through it. The results highlight a low level of disclosure on the sustainability indicators suggested by the main sustainability reporting guidelines (Global Reporting Initiative, (GRI), and Sustainability Accounting Standard Board, (SASB)); most companies tend to disclose only qualitative information and fail to inform about some material aspects of water management, such as water recycled, network resilience, water sources, and effluent quality. These findings indicate that sustainability reporting is mainly considered as a communication tool, rather than a performance measurement and an accountability tool, but also suggest the need for a new and international industry-specific sustainability reporting standard. |
topic |
sustainability reporting benchmarking/scoring techniques sustainability disclosure water utilities |
url |
http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/2/433 |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT silviacantele anewframeworkforassessingthesustainabilityreportingdisclosureofwaterutilities AT thomasatsalis anewframeworkforassessingthesustainabilityreportingdisclosureofwaterutilities AT ioannisenikolaou anewframeworkforassessingthesustainabilityreportingdisclosureofwaterutilities AT silviacantele newframeworkforassessingthesustainabilityreportingdisclosureofwaterutilities AT thomasatsalis newframeworkforassessingthesustainabilityreportingdisclosureofwaterutilities AT ioannisenikolaou newframeworkforassessingthesustainabilityreportingdisclosureofwaterutilities |
_version_ |
1725441384453767168 |