Towards Stakeholder Inclusive Environmental Reporting Practice

Environmental reporting is high on the global agenda. The recent International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) release of Sustainability Standards provides useful guidance for preparing reports on environmental impacts and addresses much of the past criticism against such reporting. However, information on which stakeholders are interested in what environmental information is scarce, as existing frameworks are primarily general environmental guidance. While current environmental reporting embodies organizational environmentalism, distinct stakeholders perceive environmental activities differently. Specific issues that matter to distinct stakeholder groups must be identified to fully understand their environmental reporting requirements. This suggests a contextualized, stakeholder-oriented, perspective on environmental reporting that presents real-life and relevant information as part of environmental reporting. This conceptual chapter aims to outline a research agenda and the practical implications for researchers and practitioners to meet the reporting requirements of key stakeholders. This encompasses identifying tangible stakeholders that impact decision-making in organizations or industries and how they can generate valuable environmental information. It is done from a contextualized stakeholder lens to address gaps in the inclusiveness of environmental reports. These contributions have significant implications for reporting on environmental impacts within a context.