The purpose of this thesis has been to examine the significance and impact of sustainability reporting practice in Europe and Denmark. This has initially been done through a state-of-the-art review that revealed a knowledge gap in the academic literature regarding sustainability reporting’s actual impact on corporations’ performance. Thus the following research question is considered relevant to investigate:
“How can sustainability reporting support corporate sustainability performance in large Danish corporations and how can the upcoming regulation contribute to ensuring this?”
Seven case studies of large, Danish C25 corporations have been conducted to enable a more practical investigation of the Danish reporting practice and to determine their Corporate Sustainability Performance. This is determined based on a conceptual framework consisting of theoretical aspects of sustainable business models resulting in the identification of ten parameters. The case studies revealed that using sustainability reporting as a tool does not necessarily improve performance but it contains the potential to do so. An analysis of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, the EU Taxonomy, and the upcoming Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, further revealed that the regulations can help overcome barriers and drive sustainability in corporations if implemented strategically. To allow corporations to exploit the potentials within sustainability reporting and the related regulations, a guide with solutions and recommendations has been formulated.