Non-financial indicators in status-reports of stock corporations

Reporting on the ecological and social situations in the business reports of large companies has attracted increasing attention as a result of the amendment to the German Accounting Reform Act of 2004. Since then, large corporate enterprises are required to provide information on “non-financial indicators” in the review of operations as part of their business reporting. However, there was uncertainty among companies affected by the legal amendment, as well as auditors, as to how the legal amendment was to be implemented.

This is where the research project came in. The basic objective was to generate ideas for improving implementation of the new regulations. In detail the project strives to present the status of implementation of sustainability issues in business reports and to identify pioneers, to highlight the importance of individual topics for business performance or the economic situation of companies as far as possible, and to offer orientation aids to the companies reporting and the auditors checking the reports.