Against a backdrop of regulatory uncertainty, shifting political agendas, a broad sustainability backlash, and diverse stakeholder needs, the sustainability reporting landscape is more complex than ever. Many organizations are asking: how can we effectively leverage our reporting to add value in this new context? Reporting Matters plays a role in answering this question.
For over a decade, WBCSD has worked in partnership with Radley Yeldar to produce Reporting Matters, an annual publication that seeks to enhance the effectiveness of corporate sustainability reporting. By presenting content trends, good practice examples, strategic discussions, and thought leadership, the publication provides comprehensive sustainability insights for reporting practitioners and a compass for setting the strategic direction.
Every year, WBCSD members are invited to submit their fullest sources of sustainability information for review against the Reporting Matters evaluation framework. The framework helps members understand how their reporting is perceived by stakeholders and provides insights into the practices of their peers. For reporting to be an effective communication tool in today’s shifting landscape, it needs to go beyond regulation – Reporting Matters offers structured recommendations to help do just that.
Capturing perspectives, experiences, and voices from a diverse group of leading businesses, the 2024 edition of Reporting Matters provided a window into how companies were rethinking and reorganizing to meet heightened demands brought about by new regulations. Across the globe, we’re now seeing the output of this shift from voluntary to mandatory disclosure.
The first wave of CSRD reports are being published in Europe, set against the backdrop of uncertainties brought by the Omnibus package of measures to simplify the EU’s business environment. In other regions, there is a growing mass of early adopters of the ISSB standards and reports issued under national rules. Will the growing number of rules have implications for the effective communication and comparability of sustainability information? And will it lead to a growing divide across geographies and companies of different sizes? Look out for our analysis in the 2025 edition of Reporting Matters, to be published in November.
In the meantime, read last year’s edition of Reporting Matters to gain insights into the actions companies are taking to implement double materiality, foster internal sustainability integration, and effectively engage stakeholders along the journey.
For more information, feel free to reach out to reportingmatters@wbcsd.org.