Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2024 in the subject Business economics - Accounting and Taxes, grade: 1,3, University of Applied Sciences Essen (BWL II), course: Value Based Controlling and International Accouting, language: English, abstract: Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations are increasingly crucial in the corporate world, driven by stakeholder demands for transparency and accountability. Europe is leading this shift with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which mandates comprehensive ESG disclosures. This directive marks a transition from voluntary initiatives to mandatory compliance, requiring companies to integrate sustainability into their core strategies and operations. This study explores the current status of ESG reporting requirements in Europe and their potential impact on corporate reporting. Using a mixed-method approach, the research combines qualitative and quantitative analysis of official documents, academic studies, and industry reports. The evolution of ESG reporting in Europe began with Directive 2013/34/EU, which mandated non-financial disclosures but had limited success. The CSRD, introduced by Directive (EU) 2022/2464, significantly expands the scope of companies required to report, aiming for nearly 75% of EU companies to comply. This expansion aligns with the European Green Deal’s vision of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent. The CSRD mandates sustainability information in official company reports or online, ensuring transparency and accountability through 'Double Materiality'. The CSRD impacts both internal and external reporting. Internally, companies must enhance data collection and analysis, involving management and supervisory bodies in sustainability issues. This requirement extends to the entire value chain, increasing administrative burdens and costs. Externally, transparent ESG reporting can enhance stakeholder trust, attract investments, and improve reputation, though non-compliance risks reputational damage and financial penalties. Despite challenges, effective ESG reporting under the CSRD offers significant benefits, including improved stakeholder relations, access to capital, and opportunities for innovation and growth. The directive’s alignment with international standards like the IFRS Sustainability standards ensures consistent and credible reporting.

Focusing on the impacts of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters, companies, financial institutions, and regulators are continually seeking sustainability-driven models and standards on ESG themes in the sourcing, design, and provision of products and services. This welcome and thoroughly researched book, by a well-known authority in corporate and financial services law, engages with developments in ESG soft and hard law as business responsibility shades into business accountability. The author offers a sweeping, in-depth consideration of the current and future role of ESG reporting and compliance, encompassing such issues and topics as the following: purpose and forms of regulation for non-financial reporting; mandatory ESG reporting implementation issues; role of the company board; recognition of threats posed by ‘greenwashing’ and similar tactics; clean energy versus sustainable supply chains; limits and weaknesses of ESG reporting; help from AI and other software solutions; and progress in the global quest for a universal ESG reporting standard. Although some companies retain their social and political licences to operate and thwart ESG, robust data and persuasive contentions worldwide show that deliberations on how best to promote global sustainability in the long term have become standard business practice. Accordingly, this book clearly demonstrates how including ESG in business decisions ultimately contributes to stable and predictable markets. Its insights and guidance will be greatly appreciated by all those needing to engage with ESG reporting, whether lawyers, investors, regulators, business stakeholders, or academics.

In the past two decades, the traditional role of corporate governance has been greatly augmented and transformed by increased attention to the importance of social inclusion in business decisions and of environmental impacts of business activities, giving rise to the now well-understood linkage among environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles. This book is the first to thoroughly analyze the ESG phenomenon as a tripartite corporate purpose model and the profusion of laws and regulations it continues to engender. Drawing on perspectives from law, economics, and business management, the book focuses on those ESG challenges that are most likely to impact companies in the coming years. The author discusses such aspects of ESG law, regulation, and practice as the following: impact of digitalization on ESG practices; competing ESG perspectives and whether there are signs of convergence toward a more universal model; impact of corporate ownership patterns; review of hard and soft law responses; corporate control under COVID-19 pandemic conditions; workplace and workforce transformations; various ESG-related corporate scandals and controversies; ESG regulatory responses from international entities such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO); and seminal ESG cases in various business sectors. The emphasis throughout is on developments in the European Union, the United States, and the United Kingdom, both because it is in those jurisdictions that ESG challenges have been and are most fully dealt with and because these economies taken together are likely to continue exerting dominating influence across the world. What this book says about ESG provides pertinent insights and guidance for those seeking a better understanding of ESG practices and underlying theories across major economies. With essential information and guidance for ESG law practitioners, policymakers, and academicians, the book gives clarity and guidance as to who should lead the charge for ESG practices in business enterprises in major jurisdictional settings. Its detailed coverage of best ESG practices will be welcomed by those conducting their business enterprises within approved regulatory perimeters.

What does sustainable business and net zero carbon emission mean for businesses globally? How should companies globally transform into sustainable businesses with net zero carbon emissions? This book unpacks the institutional, organisational and management challenges in pursuing sustainable business and carbon neutrality for businesses. In this book, Henry K. H. Wang, an internationally recognised Climate and Business expert, provides real-life cases across different countries and business sectors. He outlines potential policy implications and strategy options for companies to consider in their transitions to sustainable business practices. He also explores important new global developments in smart cities, green transport and carbon solutions, and how the adoption of sustainable finance and green investments can accelerate businesses transformation. This book will appeal to anyone interested to learn more about the successful planning and execution of sustainable business and net zero carbon neutrality transformations.

This book analyses sustainable finance policies implemented by the European Commission since January 2020. Gathering contributors from a range of European and international universities, it particularly aims to explore how EU strategy on green finance encourages and stimulates socially responsible investments that provide solutions to the challenges of the energy transition. The book provides a comprehensive coverage of economic, financial and legal issues concerning green finance and ESG factor integration in the EU. The first part of the book discusses theoretical and empirical perspectives on socially responsible investments (SRIs) and ESG integration, while the second section focuses specifically on the role of corporate governance in both institutional and private investment spheres. The third part of the book explores valuation and risk, including a discussion of current trends in SRI funding in the new European ESG Regulatory Framework. The final section of the book discusses legal and regulatory issues including an exploration of blue finance and its incorporation into EU financial strategy. This edited collection will be of interest to researchers and policymakers working in green finance, sustainability, energy economics and financial law.

This book aims to explore some perspectives on corporate non-financial information, intangibles, and digitalization offering primary studies, research perspectives, and upcoming studies presented by scholars who also participated in the 2023 To.Su. Workshop mainly based on the results of the research project “Mixing Accounting Regulation and Corporate Accountability in the Era of Non-Financial Information, Intangibles, and Digitalization: Tornado or Sunshine?”. The edited book addresses issues related to non-financial and sustainability information, as well as intangibles and digitalization from a business administration perspective.

With sustainability now a fundamental strategic pillar for organizations, ESG metrics are vital for decision making, yet this data is complex and ever evolving. Navigating Sustainability Data provides a focused guide for leaders and executives who want to understand how sustainability impacts a company's future and how they can use data as a key tool to facilitate growth, access to capital and meet regulatory requirements. It explores what data is required to make decisions that directly affect the company's valuation and helps leadership teams decide what data points they need to be preparing for their boards to support the organization's financial, strategic and reputational future. Showing how leaders can move from measuring data to managing future organizational risks and rewards, the book explores how to use the right data for the appropriate situation to drive efficient sustainable business decisions. It explains ESG data in plain English and highlights what data is relevant to leaders; what investors consider as essential data; and how regulation, disclosure and transparency are on a rapidly changing journey. Navigating Sustainability Data holds the information you need to avoid greenwashing, to shape your role in the sustainability landscape, and to be a leader for the future.

Responsible investment is going through a period of rapid change, from voluntary to mandatory, with regulators working to tackle greenwashing, investors responding to client and savers' demands, a proliferation of new sustainability themes and increased focus on real-world impact. Responsible investment is also ‘growing up’. And part of growing up is acknowledging limits and complexities, and making difficult decisions. Responsible investment has got this far by sticking to the script and not talking about the awkward bits in public. But this is no longer an option, and so it’s not surprising that it draws its critics. Part textbook, part briefing, part storytelling, this book is a personal and accessible account about the growth of an industry, what it’s got right, what it’s got wrong and if responsible investment is to matter, where we go next.

Through careful classification of the opportunities and challenges facing current financial regulatory bodies, the Research Handbook on Financial Accounting inspects the financial implications of our ever-changing modern economic and environmental climate.