Comparative analysis of sustainability reports of uruguayan public enterprises

Abstract

The Triple Bottom Line seeks to incorporate the environmental and social impacts an organization generates to their financial information. This incorporation takes place throughout diverse reports, among them sustainability reports; allow to communicate the economical, social and environmental impacts that an organization exerts on its context and community, allowing to measure through the variables and indicators the positive or negative incidence in these areas. The governments, and all their public corporations and managements should be pioneers and play a decisive role when it comes to developing, legitimating and consolidating Triple Balance patterns throughout different reports. Nevertheless, there is no evidence on how governments are incorporating the TBL in their reports, on how many companies and with what purposes. The goal of this study is precisely being able to describe what kind of reports public corporations from Uruguay elaborate and what is their content.

It is determined how many public enterprises report sustainability, how those reports become visible, what kind of report they publish and how often. As well, the obtained information is linked in the previously mentioned reports with the Principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the Sustainable Development Objectives, as well as the GRI Principles and Standards.

The source of information was the Uruguayan public enterprises’ websites, a revision of the Reports of Sustainability was made on the database of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and on the Uruguay Social Corporate Responsibility website (DERES).

As a result, it can observed how at least 86% of Uruguay public corporations present reports with diverse characteristics, with no uniformity among them. However, there has been an evolution in the reports preparation, adopting more adequate denominations, incorporating content, and increasing the quantity and quality of information. On the other hand, in said reports certain subjects as the CSR, the principles of the United Nations, the SDO, the GRI principles and standards are not necessarily addressed, which means there is still remaining information to communicate the focus groups. At the same time, only a few public corporations elaborate properly sustainability reports and none of them presents an integrated report.