New Aspects of Sustainability: Analysis of the European Practice of Non-Financial Reports

Abstract

Companies must report compliance with environmental (E), social (S) and governmental (G) criteria in accordance with the disclosure rules (framework) for non-financial information. In our study, we examine the characteristics of ESG reports, whether they reflect the sustainability performance of individual market players, as well as what the most relevant problems are regarding this issue, not underestimating the fact that the most serious problem of corporate sustainability in 2022 was energy supply difficulties and price problems. In the course of our research, we have come to the conclusion that there are a number of parallel mandatory and optional disclosure requirements that require the publication of different data, so they are only partially suitable for comparing the sustainability activities of companies. Some of the corporate reports deal with ESG issues only in principle and only a small proportion reports on actions and results. We have also made suggestions that support the comparability of companies based on ESG indicators.