SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING PRACTICES IN SRI LANKA (SPECIAL REFERENCE TO GRI-G4 FOLLOWING COMPANIES)

Abstract

Sustainability Reporting (SR) appeared as a novel concept in the modern world with the compliance of companies towards sustainability practice. It is further identified through literature that no prior studies explicitly deal with SR practices in Sri Lanka. The purpose of this study is to explore the current SR practices in the Sri Lankan context with reference to GRI-G4 guidelines. Thorough content analysis was conducted by using 42 Sustainability Reports collected from the Sustainability Discloses Database (SDD). Identification of compliances was done by categorizing indicators as the reported indicators, not reported indicators, and the not applicable indicators. The findings of the content analysis depict that the information disclosed under ninety-two GRI indicators does not fully comply with the GRI – G4 Guideline. The results further highlighted that the firms follow GRI-G4 guidelines under economic, environment & social categories while deviations are visible within the subcategories from highest rate to lowest. This study contributes to extending the literature on SR Practice in Sri Lanka whereas it has implications to numerous sectors. As an emerging trend, the national level policy makers can implement frameworks to ensure companies’ contribution to SR by providing proper understanding of how and to why major deviations should be mitigated to comply with GRI-G4 Guidelines.