An analysis of indicators disclosed in corporate sustainability reports

The purpose of this paper is to identify the indicators that are currently disclosed in corporate sustainability reports. Canada is used as a case study in the paper. The indicators were identified based on a content analysis of 94 Canadian reports from 2008. The findings show that a total of 585 different indicators were used in the reports. Differences in the use of indicators between sectors were described. The use of indicators suggested by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) was also investigated. It was found that 31 of the 94 reports included indicators explicitly identified as GRI indicators. The most reported GRI indicators appeared in 28 of the reports, while the least reported indicators appeared in 5 of the reports. This paper provides one of the first in-depth reviews of the indicators used in corporate sustainability reports. It is anticipated that the results will be of interest to practitioners and academics in corporate sustainability reporting and sustainability indicators. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.