Comparability of Sustainable Performance

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the comparability of sustainability performance from greenhouse gas emissions through the content analysis of 23 sustainability reports from Danish companies present in the C25 index.

All Danish entities in the categories large C and D are obligated to report on their corporate social responsibility and within this on their climate impacts. Sustainable performance is the companies ability to reach economic, environmental and social success with maintenance and improvements long term.
Research literature has previously shown, that sustainable performance and the quality of sustainability reporting is linked to the use of standards (Boiral & Henri, 2017, Dawkins & Fraas, 2023), where comparability is not possible yet, due to the differences in measurements and the current regulation(Boiral & Henri, 2017; Boiral et al. 2022; Venturelli et al., 2020 Xie & Hayase, 2007, Callery, 2023, Hubbard, 2006).

Through the content analysis, the companies sustainability reports are inspected, reporting on their greenhouse gas emissions, progress, targets, accounting practices, the use of standards, boundaries, EU Taxonomi and topics related hereto.

The analysis shows that the companies sustainability reports contain several differences in the content, they report, the use of standards, methods etc. The analysis shows that the interfirm comparability is not possible due to three main challenges, which is the comparison of incomparable measurements, uncomplete and uncertain information and opaque and self-proclaimed information.

The result from the analysis is discussed from three different theoretical perspectives (functionalist, critical, and postmodern). From the three perspectives, there is suggested possible explanations of the main findings, and suggestions to solving the comparability issues.