Sustainability Reporting and Analysis: Accounting for a Changing World

As concerns around sustainability grow, firms' reporting on this information is increasingly prevalent and demanded by shareholders and other stakeholders. This course will introduce students to the current reporting landscape and the various sustainability reporting frameworks used by firms, exploring these frameworks by comparing and contrasting companies' sustainability reports. We will study global regulations to standardize reporting and consider how these disclosures complement what firms already report in their financial statements (e.g. 10-Ks). After understanding how firms report on sustainability issues (e.g. climate risk, GHG emissions, human capital, etc.), we will examine how stakeholders use this information, considering questions such as how to assess the reliability of these disclosures (e.g. is this just "greenwashing"), how these disclosures relate to commercial sustainability (also called ESG) ratings, and how these disclosures tie to the firms' strategies (e.g. tying executive compensation to sustainability metrics). Since the regulatory environment is evolving, this course will be fluid; topics we cover may change during the semester as current events dictate.