Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Intellectual Capital

Kai Mertins and Ronald Orth
Never<strong>the</strong>less, <strong>the</strong> decision which integration variation is suitable for <strong>the</strong> different environmental and
social aspects cannot be made in <strong>the</strong> run-op <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> formulation <strong>of</strong> a BSC. It ra<strong>the</strong>r depends on <strong>the</strong>
specific impact and strategic relevance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se environmental and social aspects. Fur<strong>the</strong>r, three
variations do not exclude each o<strong>the</strong>r but can occur simultaneously with <strong>the</strong> formulation <strong>of</strong> a specific
SBSC.
3.2 Sustainability reporting
Many enterprises are already living <strong>the</strong> social responsibility by integrating ecological and social
standards into <strong>the</strong>ir management processes and value chains. Partially, <strong>the</strong>y document this
engagement in sustainability reports.
Sustainability reports prove environmental, social and economic engagements which enterprises are
making in dealing with internal and external resources. They satisfy <strong>the</strong> increased information needs
<strong>of</strong> stakeholders. Mostly, as motives and use <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sustainability reporting are mentioned <strong>the</strong>
improvement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> enterprise image and <strong>the</strong> credibility, <strong>the</strong> increase <strong>of</strong> transparency towards all
interest groups, creation <strong>of</strong> competitive advantages, encouragement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> enterprise culture and
support <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> management (Orth/Grewatsch 2010).
Since more than ten years now <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> enterprises which report integrated about <strong>the</strong>
economic, ecological and social aspects <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir corporate activities has been risen strongly –
although outgoing from a low quantitative level. Hence, sustainability reports are crucial for <strong>the</strong>
increase <strong>of</strong> international non-financial enterprise reporting. In 1997 worldwide 350 enterprises
published a non-financial report, in 2006 it already were more than 2000 enterprises (figure 2).
However, since 2003 this increase has slowed down and in 2006 it was declining for <strong>the</strong> first time.
Therefore, it can be stated that sustainability reports are increasingly <strong>the</strong> "driver" <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> growth <strong>of</strong> nonfinancial
enterprise reports. Never<strong>the</strong>less, <strong>the</strong> decline <strong>of</strong> non-financial reports all toge<strong>the</strong>r points to <strong>the</strong>
fact that to <strong>the</strong> growth potential <strong>of</strong> sustainability reports are also set limits (BMU 2007a).
non-financial company report
sustainability reports
Figure 2: Non-financial reporting from 1997-2006 (BMU 2007a)
These numbers prove that <strong>the</strong> discussion about sustainability reports has outgrown <strong>the</strong> initial stage by
now. Not only for environmental reports but also for sustainability reports, criteria are already
available. Worldwide attention has found above all <strong>the</strong> Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). In 2000, for
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