Lorenzo Patelli is an Assistant Professor in the Daniels College of Business School of Accountancy.

As sustainability becomes an increasingly strategic priority, business leaders have been introducing new practices to communicate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. For many companies, sustainability reporting represents an important avenue for engaging with investors, customers, and employees on these matters. Despite its growth, reporting on social and environmental issues remains a relatively new practice and poses a number of questions and challenges to business leaders in charge of overseeing sustainability.

This KnowlEdge Series features the co-authors of Sustainability Matters 2013: How Companies Communicate and Engage on Sustainability, a report highlighting critical matters related to the disclosure of sustainability information.

Sustainability Standards and Stakeholder Engagement

25 April, 2013 01:00 PM EST [13:00] | (1 hr) 

What sustainability standards (e.g. GRI, UN Global Compact, ISO 26000) should companies consider adopting? How do these standards differ and what value do they offer? How do companies choose to engage on sustainability issues with their stakeholders? Part II of this series looks at examples of different stakeholder engagement approaches and variations in level and scope of engagement, and discusses the need to more clearly explore and develop linkages between existing, and sometimes competing, sustainability standards.

Speaker: Lorenzo Patelli