Standards on Corporate and Public Sustainability Reporting

Sustainable development, with its three pillars (environmental, social, and governance, ESG), is a must for humans. Climate change is occurring faster than expected. In 2015, 193 countries signed the United Nations Agenda 2030, and it must be realized in time, together with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle, the Check phase is very important – sustainability reporting (SR) is necessary. This article presents an overview of the existing SR standards (SRS) and their future development. Information review methodology shows that SRS are already well developed in large companies. The different standards are described, e.g. voluntary ISO (International Organization for Standardizations) standards, and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) ones, mandatory European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), or the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). National SRS are often aligned with the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. Besides the corporate SRS, public ones, covering governmental and non-governmental institutions, universities and associations are described. Public SRS should be adapted to the needs of public institutions. Finally, the SRS for individuals and communities are discussed to cover these important parts of humanity. The social and governance sustainability reports could be extended with the annual personal or community Carbon or Ecological Footprint reports.