Standardization still eludes sustainability reporting, but the foundation of every report should be transparency and accountability.
- By Sharon Ross

Non-financial reporting has been evolving for over two decades now, growing well beyond addressing environmental issues to include social and governance aspects of doing business. It has been an evolutionary process, which began with informing investors of environmental issues and is now trending toward integrated reporting in which financial and non-financial reporting is combined. There are good reasons, too.

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, or sustainability factors, have a direct i....