Titel: Hållbarhetsinformation i VD-ordet- En kvantitativ studie av företag på OMX Stockholm Large CapFörfattare: Magnus Olsson och Karl AmbrosiussonBakgrund: VD-ordet är ett frivilligt avsnitt i årsredovisningen där företagsledningen och den verkställande direktören har möjlighet att uttrycka sig om det gångna året och framtiden. VD-ordet är en av de mest lästa delarna i årsredovisningen. Denna uppsats fokuserar på i vilken utsträckning hållbarhetsinformation framhävs i VD-ordet. Hållbarhetsredovisning är sedan 2016 ett krav för större företag och 2017 års årsredovisningar är de första som måste innehålla en hållbarhetsrapport.Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att utforska om lagändringen med krav på hållbarhetsrapportering har påverkat i vilken utsträckning hållbarhetsinformation presenteras i VD-ordet. Syftet är vidare att förklara om företagets storlek är en faktor som påverkar mängden hållbarhetsinformation som presenteras i VD-ordet.Metod: Kvantitativ innehållsanalys har tillämpats för att mäta i vilken utsträckning hållbarhetsinformation används i VD-ordet genom att räkna hur ofta begrepp som förknippas med hållbarhet förekommer.Slutsats: Mängden hållbarhetsinformation i VD-ordet har ökat mellan 2016 och 2017, men lagändringen har inte medfört någon extra påverkan. Resultatet visar också att ett företags storlek inte påverkar mängden hållbarhetsinformation i VD-ordet hos de undersökta företagen. / Title: Sustainability information in the CEO letter- A quantitative study of companies at OMX Stockholm Large CapAuthors: Magnus Olsson and Karl AmbrosiussonBackground: The CEO letter is a voluntary section in the annual report where the management together with the CEO have the opportunity to express themselves about the past year and future expectations. The CEO letter is one of the most read parts in the annual report. This essay focuses on to what extent the CEO letter presents sustainability information. A Sustainability report has been a requirement for bigger companies since 2016 and the annual reports of 2017 are the first reports that have to contain a sustainability report.Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to find out if the new sustainability reporting requirements has affected the extent of sustainability information presented in the CEO letter. The purpose is further to explain whether the size of the company is a factor that affects the amount of sustainability information presented in the CEO letter.Method: Quantitative content analysis has been applied to measure the extent to which sustainability information is used in the CEO letter. It’s used by counting the frequency of concepts associated with sustainability.Conclusion: The result shows that the amount of sustainability information in the CEO letter has increased between 2016 and 2017, but that the change in the law did not have any additional impact on the amount of sustainability information. The result also shows that size of the companies doesn’t affect the amount of sustainability information in the CEO letter for the investigated companies.

Syfte: Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka faktorer som kan förklara att svenska noterade SME frivilligt hållbarhetsrapporterar.   Metod: Den här studien utgår från en positivistisk forskningsfilosofi och tillämpar en deduktiv ansats. För att besvara syftet i studien har en kvantitativ metod tillämpats genom en innehållsanalys och hypotesprövningar via en logistisk regressionsanalys. Data inhämtas från räkenskapsåret 2016 och består av både primärdata från företags årsredovisningar samt sekundärdata från databasen Retriever. Populationen i studien är 188 stycken noterade SME:s på segmenten Small- och MidCap på Nasdaq Stockholm varav det är 49 antal företag som hållbarhetsrapporterar.   Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet av studien visar att storlek spelar en viss roll till SME:s benägenhet att frivilligt hållbarhetsrapportera. Studien fann att det råder ett svagt positivt samband med statistisk signifikans mellan storlek och frivillig hållbarhetsrapportering bland företagen på segmentet SmallCap. Dessvärre fann inte denna studie någon statistisk signifikans för de oberoende variablerna tillväxt, lönsamhet och skuldsättningsgrad samt kontrollvariabeln bransch mellan dem och frivillig hållbarhetsrapportering.      Uppsatsens bidrag: Studiens praktiska bidrag ger företagsledare hos noterade SME:s i Sverige en utökad kunskap om området och en insikt i hur olika faktorer kan ge en förklaring till att SME:s hållbarhetsrapporterar. Det teoretiska bidraget delger ett svar på syftet i studien och visar på att faktorn storlek till viss del kan förklara att noterade SME:s i Sverige frivilligt hållbarhetsrapporterar. Faktorerna tillväxt, lönsamhet och skuldsättningsgrad kan till skillnad från storlek inte förklara något då inga samband visats denna studie.    Förslag till fortsatt forskning: En begränsning är att det enbart var 49 stycken som hållbarhetsrapporterar av studiens population om 188 stycken företag från år 2016. Denna studie kodade sin beroende variabel med 1 om ett företag hållbarhetsrapporterar och med 0 om det inte gör det. En begränsning blir att det enbart går att se om de hållbarhetsrapportar eller inte efter de kriterier som studien har vid kodningen. Det vill säga att det inte går att urskilja hur mycket företagen hållbarhetsrapporterar.   Förslag till vidare forskning är att göra en ny studie när lagändringarna gällande stora företags tvång till hållbarhetsrapportering har fått effekt på dem som inte ställs under lagen, det vill säga mindre företag som frivilligt hållbarhetsrapporterar. Förhoppningsvis blir det fler företag på segmenten Small- och MidCap som frivilligt hållbarhetsrapporterar. Ett förslag är att utforma ett index med hjälp av en innehållsanalys för att kunna gradera dem efter hur mycket de hållbarhetsrapporterar. Dessutom gick denna studie till största del inte i linje med de utformade hypoteserna eller till stor del med vad den tidigare forskningen har visat, vilket sig bland annat att kan bero på hur variablerna blivit mätta. Ytterligare förslag till den vidare forskningen är att eventuellt välja andra faktorer utifrån den tidigare forskningen eller att använda sig av samma faktorer men mäta dem på annat sätt. / Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate determinant factors that can explain why some Swedish listed SME:s sustainability reports voluntary.   Method: This study is based on positivist research philosophy and applies a deductive approach. In order to respond to the purpose of the study a quantitative method has been used through a content analysis and hypothesis tests through a logistic regression analysis. The collection of data was from 2016 and consists of both primary data from company annual reports and secondary data from the database Retriever. The population of the study is 188 listed SME:s in the Small- and MidCap segment of Nasdaq Stockholm.   Result & Conclusions: The result of the study shows that size plays a certain role in SME:s inclination to report sustainability voluntarily. The study found that there was a positive correlation with statistical significance between size and sustainability reporting voluntary among the companies in the SmallCap segment. Unfortunately, this study did not find any statistical significance for the independent variables growth, profitability and debt ratio as well as the control variable business sector between them and sustainability reporting voluntary.   Contribution of the thesis: The practical contribution from this study gives business leaders in Swedish listed SME:s an expanded knowledge of the area and an insight into how different determinant factors can explain that SME:s sustainability reports voluntary . The theoretical contribution gives an answer to the purpose of the study and shows that the size partly can explain that Swedish listed SME:s sustainability reports voluntary. The determinant factors growth, profitability and debt ratio, unlike to size do not explain anything since no relationship has been found. Suggestions for future research: One limitation is that there were only 49 out of 188 companies from 2016 that sustainability reports voluntarily. This study encoded its dependent variable by 1 point if companies sustainability reports or with 0 point if it did not. A further limitation is that it is only possible to see the sustainability reports or not, according to the criteria during the encoding process. Therefore, it is not possible to distinguish how much companies report sustainability.   Suggestions for further research is to undertake a new study when the changes in the law regarding large companies compulsion to sustainability reporting have impacted on those not subject to the law, that is smaller companies as voluntary sustainability reports. Hopefully, there will be more companies in the Small- and MidCap segments who sustainability reports voluntary. One suggestion is to design an index by using a content analysis to grade them according to the amount of sustainability reports. In addition, this study was largely not in line with the assumptions or largely based on what the previous research has shown, which may be due to how the variables have been measured. Additional suggestions for the further research to possibly choose other factors or choose the same but measure them differently.

Milhares de empresas ao redor do mundo publicam anualmente relatórios de sustentabilidade, documentos que divulgam o desempenho econômico, ambiental, social e de governança da organização. Segundo dados de 2014, do relatório Spotlight on corporate transparency: Insights from GLOBE 2014, da empresa de auditoria KPMG, mais de 5.000 empresas em 88 países elaboram esses relatórios seguindo as diretrizes GRI Global Reporting Initiative (KPMG, 2014, p. 4). Frequentemente, tais relatórios são elaborados na língua oficial do país em que as empresas estão instaladas (língua de partida) e traduzidos para o inglês (língua de chegada). O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar a linguagem da tradução presente em relatórios de sustentabilidade que seguem o padrão GRI para identificar os principais traços típicos da tradução, tais como explicitação, simplificação e normalização, seguindo o arcabouço teórico de Baker (1993, 1995, 1996). Como objetivo secundário visamos identificar os principais termos e expressões desse modelo de relatório em português e seus equivalentes em inglês, para a compilação de uma proposta de glossário bilíngue na direção português-inglês. O estudo foi feito principalmente por meio dos Estudos da Tradução Baseados em Corpus e da Linguística de Corpus, utilizando um corpus paralelo, com 10 documentos coletados da internet em português com as respectivas traduções para o inglês, e dois corpora comparáveis bilíngues, com um total de 30 documentos em português e outros 30 escritos em inglês. Em relação ao objetivo principal, notamos que, embora os documentos originais e as traduções do corpus de estudo sejam bastante semelhantes, isto é, apresentem o mesmo número de páginas, o mesmo layout e, aparentemente, o mesmo conteúdo em cada página, foi possível notar traços de explicitação, simplificação e normalização na linguagem traduzida. / Thousands of companies around the world annually publish sustainability reports, documents that disclose the organization\'s economic, environmental, social and governance performance. According to data from 2014 report Spotlight on Corporate Transparency: Insights from GLOBE 2014, published by auditing company KPMG, more than 5,000 companies in 88 countries compile these reports following the GRI Global Reporting Initiative guidelines (KPMG, 2014, p.4). Such reports are often produced in the official language of the country where the companies are established (the source language) and translated into English (the target language). The aim of this research is to analyze the translation language present in sustainability reports that follow the GRI standard to identify the main typical features of translation, such as explicitation, simplification and normalization, following the theoretical framework of Baker (1993, 1995, 1996). As a secondary goal we aim to identify the main terms and expressions of this model of report in Portuguese and their English equivalents, for the compilation of a proposal of a bilingual glossary in the Portuguese-English direction. The study was carried out mainly through Corpus-Based Translation Studies and Corpus Linguistics, using a parallel corpus, with 10 documents collected from the Internet in Portuguese with the respective English translations, and two comparable bilingual corpora with a total of 30 documents in Portuguese and other 30 documents written in English. In relation to the main objective, we noticed that, although the original documents and the translations of the study corpus are very similar, that is, they present the same number of pages, the same layout and, apparently, the same content in each page, it was possible to note traces of explicitation, simplification and normalization in the translated language.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-18T17:23:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISSERTACAO_ELISIO CESAR BESSA.pdf: 7679908 bytes, checksum: 2086b86c3e39b9dbfe8570c57a2b124f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-08-29 / Sustainability reports are an important means of corporate communication with its stakeholders. However, the disclosure of environmental indicators in these reports is still considered low. The GRI sustainability reporting model was designed to help organizations better report their performance in economic, social and environmental areas, but studies show that many companies declared themselves followers of this standard but in practice the disclosure is still low. This study aims to analyze the sustainability reports for the energy sector companies, listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), comparing the disclosure of core environmental indicators with GRI standards. For this, it was made an exploratory and documentary research, in the organizations sustainability reports for three consecutive years. It was developed a criteria to classify the indicators as well as an index to represent the company disclosure level, called Environmental Disclosure Index (IEVA). After that, it was made an analysis of all data and information provided by companies in the sample, comparing what was evidenced with what is required by the GRI model, when was possible to observe that despite belonging to the same sector, with the same difficulties and complexities, companies are at different stages of environmental disclosure, regardless of country or geographic region. No organization fully meets GRI model requirements, even those who declared themselves at the highest level of guidelines application. Companies in Europe, have better environmental disclosure, followed by companies from South America, North America and Asia. There is a tendency to improve environmental disclosure in the three years analyzed in this research. An important contribution of this research was the development a method to classify the indicators as well as the calculation of the Environmental Disclosure Index (IEVA) that can be used in other dimensions of sustainability reports and in the analysis of other industrial sectors. / Os relatórios de sustentabilidade são um importante meio de comunicação das empresas com seus stakeholders. Entretanto, a evidenciação dos indicadores ambientais nesses relatórios ainda é considerada baixa. O modelo de relatórios de sustentabilidade da GRI foi desenvolvido para ajudar as organizações a melhor relatarem seus desempenhos nas áreas econômica, social e ambiental, mas estudos demonstram que muitas empresas se autodeclaram seguidoras do padrão e, entretanto na prática a evidenciação ainda é baixa. Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar os relatórios de sustentabilidade das empresas de energia, listadas no Índice Dow Jones de Sustentabilidade (DJSI), comparando a evidenciação dos indicadores ambientais essenciais com os padrões da GRI. Para isso, foi feita uma pesquisa exploratória, documental nos relatórios de sustentabilidade de três anos consecutivos das organizações que utilizam o modelo GRI. Foi desenvolvido um critério de classificação dos indicadores e um índice representativo da evidenciação da organização, chamado de Índice de Evidenciação Ambiental (IEVA). Posteriormente, fez-se uma análise dos dados e informações disponibilizadas pelas empresas da amostra comparando o que foi evidenciado com o que é requerido pelo modelo GRI. Foi possível verificar que apesar de pertencerem ao mesmo setor, com as mesmas dificuldades e complexidades, as empresas estão em estágios diferentes de evidenciação ambiental, independente de países ou região geográfica. Nenhuma organização atende de forma plena aos requisitos da GRI, mesmo aquelas que se autodeclaram no nível mais alto de aplicação das diretrizes. As empresas da Europa possuem uma melhor evidenciação ambiental, seguidas das empresas da América do Sul, América do Norte e Ásia. Por fim, foi observado que existe uma tendência de melhoria da evidenciação ambiental no período de três anos analisados nessa pesquisa. Uma importante contribuição dessa pesquisa foi o desenvolvimento do método de classificação dos indicadores e cálculo do Índice de Evidenciação Ambiental (IEVA) que podem ser utilizados nas outras dimensões dos relatórios de sustentabilidade assim como na análise de outros setores industriais.

O desenvolvimento sustentável tem sido um grande desafio global e as empresas têm grande participação nesse processo, uma vez que movimentam a economia e geram empregos, consomem matérias-primas e poluem o meio ambiente. As grandes corporações são as que causam os maiores danos, mas podem contribuir para alcançar os Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS) e suas prioridades globais. A indústria da construção civil, especificamente, desempenha importante papel econômico e é responsável por um consumo significativo de recursos naturais e por um impacto ambiental bastante expressivo. Coibidas por pressões externas, de regulamentações, investidores e outras partes interessadas, as empresas do setor da construção civil têm feito seu relato de sustentabilidade de acordo com o modelo da Global Reporting Iniciative (GRI), que incentiva as empresas a definirem quais questões relativas à sustentabilidade são mais relevantes para sua cadeia de valor, por meio do princípio de \"materialidade\". O principal objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar como a construção civil brasileira impacta positiva ou negativamente os Objetivos de Desenvolvimento Sustentável (ODS), considerando os segmentos das construtoras, fábricas e cimenteiras. Um grupo de empresas representantes da construção civil brasileira foi selecionado para o estudo, que se dividiu em três etapas, sendo a primeira uma revisão sistemática de literatura a respeito dos impactos do setor da construção civil; a segunda uma análise de dados secundários, que são os relatórios de sustentabilidade das empresas estudadas; e a terceira uma etapa de entrevistas com especialistas do setor da construção civil. Na segunda etapa, com base nas matrizes individuais das empresas, foram elaboradas matrizes de materialidade unificadas para os segmentos do setor. Elas foram, então, validadas pelos especialistas da construção civil e comparadas com os dados encontrados na revisão sistemática de literatura. Após a validação das matrizes, conseguiu-se uma relação dos ODS que são impactados positiva ou negativamente pelos principais aspectos materiais do setor. Identificou-se que os principais ODS impactados positivamente são os de número 3, 4, 8 e 9; e os principais ODS impactados negativamente são os ODS 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 e 16. Isso indica que apenas 4, dentre os 17 ODS não são diretamente impactados pelos aspectos materiais do setor da construção civil brasileira. Sendo assim, foram feitas sugestões para mitigação dos impactos causados que incluem, principalmente, medidas governamentais, em relação à regulamentação e fiscalização; e empresariais, a respeito do modelo de gestão. Tendo como base o Guia SDG Compass, as empresas poderão desenvolver uma estratégia de gestão que tenha o propósito de colocar a sustentabilidade no centro da estratégia empresarial. Desta forma, as empresas poderão desenvolver um modelo de gestão voltado para o futuro e para o alcance dos ODS e, assim, melhorar o diálogo entre todas as partes interessadas. Além disso, este trabalho agrega conhecimento teórico ao avançar na exploração da literatura e da pesquisa sobre os ODS, uma vez que eles, tendo sido lançados no final de 2015, ainda se tratam de um campo recente de pesquisa. O trabalho também avança no delineamento do panorama em que o setor de construção civil brasileiro se encontra frente à sustentabilidade organizacional, aos relatos de sustentabilidade com base nas diretrizes da GRI e ao desenvolvimento de matrizes de materialidade. / Sustainable development has been a major global challenge and companies have a strong stake in this process as they move the economy and generate jobs, consume raw materials and pollute the environment. Large corporations are the ones causing the greatest damage, but they can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and their global priorities. The construction industry, specifically, plays an important economic role and is responsible for a significant consumption of natural resources and a very significant environmental impact. Constrained by external pressures, regulations, investors and other stakeholders, companies in the construction industry have made their sustainability report according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) model, which encourages companies to define which issues are more relevant to their value chain, it is the principle of \"materiality\". The main objective of this work was to identify how Brazilian civil construction positively or negatively impacts the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), considering the segments of construction companies, factories and cement companies. A group of companies representing Brazilian civil construction was selected for the study, which was divided into three stages, the first being a systematic review of the literature on the impacts of the civil construction sector; the second an analysis of secondary data, which are the sustainability reports of the companies studied; and the third a stage of interviews with specialists in the construction industry. In the second stage, based on the individual corporate matrices, unified materiality matrices were elaborated for the segments of the industry. They were then validated by construction specialists and compared with the data found in the systematic literature review. After the validation of the matrices, it could be made a list of the SDG that are positively or negatively impacted by the main material aspects of the sector. It was identified that the main positively impacted SDG are those of numbers 3, 4, 8 and 9; and the main SDG negatively impacted are SDG 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15 and 16. This indicates that only 4 of the 17 SDG are not directly impacted by the material aspects of the Brazilian construction industry. Thus, suggestions were made to mitigate the impacts caused, which mainly include governmental measures, in relation to regulation and inspection; and business, regarding the management model. Based on the SDG Compass Guide, companies can develop a management strategy that aims to put sustainability at the center of business strategy. In this way, companies will be able to develop a future-oriented management model and to achieve the SDG and thus improve the dialogue among all stakeholders. In addition, this work adds theoretical knowledge in advancing the exploration of literature and SDG research, since they were launched at the end of 2015 and are still a recent field of research. The work also advances in the outline of the scenario in which the Brazilian civil construction sector faces organizational sustainability, sustainability reports based on GRI guidelines and the development of materiality matrices.

Bakgrunden till denna uppsats handlar om högre utbildning och dess viktiga roll i relation till hållbar utveckling. Forskning visar att högre utbildning ligger efter i implementering av hållbarhetsredovisning och det var därför intressant att studera svensk högre utbildning utifrån detta.Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka, beskriva och skapa en djupare förståelse kring hur högre utbildning redovisar arbetet med att främja hållbar utveckling i den egna organisa-tionen. Syftet var också att beskriva eventuella skillnader i hållbarhetsredovisning mellan lärosäten.Den metod som användes för studien var en kombinerad kvalitativ och kvantitativ innehålls-analys. Utifrån ett stratifierat sannolikhetsurval undersöktes årsredovisningar för åtta lärosäten avseende hållbarhetsredovisning. Global Reporting Initiatives ramverk och riktlinjer användes som utgångspunkt för den analysmodell som utvecklades för att bättre passa den sektor som studerades, högre utbildning.Resultatet visar att det pågår ett omfattande arbete med att främja hållbar utveckling i den egna organisationen inom svensk högre utbildning. Lärosätenas hållbarhetsredovisning utifrån den sociala dimensionen pekar tydligt på detta, medan den ekologiska dimensionen har ett begränsat utrymme i årsredovisningarna. Resultatet visar också att det finns skillnader mellan lärosäten avseende både innehåll och omfattning av hållbarhetsredovisning. Enskilda utbildningsanordnare redovisar klart mest följt av universiteten, högskolorna och konstnärliga högskolor. / The background to this essay is the important role higher education hold in relation to sustainable development. Research shows that higher education is at an early stage regarding implementation of sustainability reporting and it is therefore interesting to study Swedish higher education based on this.The purpose of this study was to investigate, describe and create a deeper understanding of how higher education is reporting its work to promote sustainable development in its own organization. The purpose was also to describe possible differences in sustainability reporting between institutions.The method used for the study was a combined qualitative and quantitative content analysis. Based on a stratified probability survey, annual reports for eight institutions were examined regarding sustainability reporting. The Global Reporting Initiative framework and guidelines were used as a basis for the analysis and a model was developed to better fit the sector studied, higher education.The findings show that there is extensive work going on in promoting sustainable develop-ment in the own organization within Swedish higher education. Sustainability reporting in higher education institutions based on the social dimension clearly points to this, while the ecological dimension has limited scope in the annual reports. The findings also show that there are differences between the institutions regarding content and scope of sustainability reporting. Private institutions clearly reports the most followed by universities, colleges and artistic colleges.This paper is written in Swedish.

Ämnet hållbarhet är idag mer aktuellt än någonsin. Många företag tar ansvar för sin påverkan på omgivningen och detta ansvar har kommit att bli en del av den externa rapporteringen. Företags hållbarhetsrapportering har traditionellt varit frivillig och det har tillämpats självreglering. I kontrast till de noterade företagens avsaknad av regler har svenska staten, genom införandet av en ägarpolicy, ställt upp krav på de statliga företagen. Kraven innebär att de statliga företagen ska agera föredömligt inom hållbart företagande och hållbarhetsrapportera i enlighet med GRI:s riktlinjer. Syftet med denna studie har varit att utifrån GRI:s kvalitativa egenskaper gällande hållbarhetsrapporteringens informationskvalitet undersöka skillnader mellan noterade och statliga företags hållbarhetsupplysningar inom de områden som stadgas i ÅRL 6 kap 12 § 1 st. Vår studie är komparativ och vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys med kvantitativa inslag. Bedömningar har gjorts av 21 noterade och 21 statliga företags hållbarhetsrapportering. Med en egenutvecklad modell för bedömning av skillnader i informationskvalitet, har vi kunnat uppfylla studiens syfte och besvara vår forskningsfråga: Vilka skillnader i hållbarhetsrapporteringens informationskvalitet kan identifieras mellan noterade och statliga företag? Studiens resultat visar att de statliga företagens hållbarhetsrapportering genomgående uppvisar en högre informationskvalitet än noterade företag. De största skillnaderna som identifierades var att de statliga företagen i en avsevärd större utsträckning efterföljde internationella ramverk och riktlinjer samt att de lät sin hållbarhetsrapport genomgå en oberoende extern granskning. Den reglering som statliga företag omfattas av verkar leda till en högre informationskvalitet i hållbarhetsrapporteringen än vad självreglering gör. Studiens teoretiska bidrag är en modell som möjliggör en bedömning av informationskvalitet i företags hållbarhetsrapportering och en kartläggning av skillnader mellan noterade och statliga företag. Även praktiker kan ha nytta av vår kartläggning som visar att noterade företag kan öka sin informationskvalitet genom att efterfölja internationella ramverk samt låta rapporteringen bli externt granskad. / The subject of sustainability is today more current than ever before. Many companies take responsibility for their impact on the environment and this responsibility has become part of the external reporting. Corporate sustainability reporting has traditionally been voluntary and subject to self-regulation. Contrary to the lack of rules for listed companies, the Swedish state has imposed demands on state-owned companies through the introduction of an ownership policy. The requirement means that state-owned companies should act exemplarily in sustainable business and report sustainability in accordance with GRI's guidelines. The purpose of this study has been to investigate differences between listed and state-owned companies' sustainability information quality in the areas defined in ÅRL 6 kap 12 § 1 st, based on GRI's qualitative characteristics regarding sustainability reporting. Our study is comparative and we have used a qualitative content analysis with quantitative elements. Assessments have been made of 21 listed and 21 state-owned companies' sustainability reporting. With a self-developed model for assessing differences in information quality, we have been able to fulfil the purpose of the study and answer our research question: What differences in sustainability reporting information quality can be identified between listed and state-owned companies? The results of the study show that the sustainability reporting of state-owned companies contains a higher information quality than listed companies. The major differences identified were that the state-owned companies complied with international framework and guidelines to a significantly greater extent and let their sustainability report be subject for independent external auditing. The government-controlled regulation seems to lead to a higher information quality in sustainability reporting than self-regulation. The theoretical contribution of the study is a model that enables an assessment of information quality in sustainability reporting and a mapping of differences between listed and state-owned companies. Practitioners may also benefit from our study, which shows that listed companies can increase their information quality by following international frameworks and allowing the reporting to be externally audited.  This thesis is written in Swedish.

Bakgrund & Problemdiskussion: Hållbarhet är ett aktuellt och omdiskuterat ämne i det moderna samhället. I den hållbara utvecklingen bär företag ett stort ansvar där energibranschen har uppmärksammats för dess betydande inverkan på miljön. Företag tillhandahåller hållbarhetsredovisningar för att kommunicera hur de arbetar för att bidra till den hållbara utvecklingen. En intressentgrupp som efterfrågar information om detta är investerare då de är i behov av att kunna jämföra företags redovisningar vid investeringsbeslut. Trots tillämpning av samma riktlinjer förekommer det skillnader mellan företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar, vilket hämmar jämförbarheten. Tidigare forskning har visat att det är vanligt att företag upprättar hållbarhetsredovisningar enligt Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) vars riktlinjer och standarder skall främja både mätbarhet och jämförbarhet.  Syfte: Utifrån det institutionella begreppet isomorfism bör företag som tillämpar samma riktlinjer bli mer jämförbara. Därav syftar denna studie till att undersöka hur jämförbarheten mellan svenska energiföretags hållbarhetsredovisningar har utvecklats över tid vid tillämpning av GRI.  Metod: Studien har en kvalitativ ansats men omfattas även av kvantitativa inslag. En komparativ forskningsdesign har tillämpats då studien ämnar till att undersöka hur jämförbarheten mellan energiföretags hållbarhetsredovisningar har utvecklats över tid. Primärdata i form av hållbarhetsredovisningar för åren 2016 och 2019 har samlats in från sju energiföretag som följer GRI. Innehållet i hållbarhetsredovisningarna har analyserats utifrån en innehållsanalys som går under benämningen Consolidate Narrivate Interogation (CONI). Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar att jämförbarheten mellan hållbarhetsredovisningar av svenska energiföretag som följer GRI har ökat över tid. Däremot förekommer det skillnader gällande hur detaljerad information som tillhandahålls samt vad de anser är viktigast att informera om. Detta påvisar att även om jämförbarheten har ökat är företagens hållbarhetsredovisningar fortfarande inte jämförbara. / Background & Problem: Sustainability is a current and debated topic in modern society. Companies are held responsible to carry out the development of their goods and services in a sustainable way. The energy sector has been noticed for its considerable impact on the climate and the environment. Companies are providing sustainability reports to communicate their work to contribute to a more sustainable future. Investors are requesting sustainability reports to be able to compare the sustainable work within companies before making decisions regarding investments. There are guidelines to follow but despite that it is hard to compare the sustainability reports between companies. Research has found that it is common that the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines are used by companies and the guidelines aim to make the comparison between companies easier. Purpose: Companies using the same guidelines should be more comparable according to the institutional concept of isomorphism. The purpose of this study is to investigate if Swedish companies within the energy sector who use the GRI guidelines have become more comparable over time. Method: The study has a qualitative approach but do also contain qualitative elements. A comparative research design has been applied as the study aims to investigate how the comparability between energy companies’ sustainability reports have developed over time. Sustainability reports for the years 2016 and 2019 have been collected as the primary data from seven companies that follow the GRI guidelines within the energy sector. The content of the sustainability reports has been analysed based on a content analysis model called Consolidate Narrivate Interogation (CONI).  Conclusion: The comparability between the companies sustainability reports have increased over time according to the findings of the study. There is still a difference though in the level of details provided and which topic that is the most important to provide information about. The conclusion of the study is that the companies are not comparable even if the comparability has increased over time.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka den klimatrelaterade hållbarhetsredovisningen i svenska statliga bolag under åren 2016 och 2020 för att utröna om någon förändring i kvalitet kan observeras och vilka faktorer som påverkar kvaliteten på den klimatrelaterade hållbarhetsredovisningen under respektive år. Den klimatrelaterade hållbarhetsredovisningen för 40 statligt ägda bolag undersöks under två år. Uppsatsens forskningsfrågor och hypoteser undersöks utifrån en kvantitativ forskningsansats, där en innehållsanalys av bolagens hållbarhetsredovisning genomförs för respektive år. Genom kvantifiering av hållbarhetsinformationen skapas empirisk data som analyseras. Som grund för analysen ligger den teoretiska referensramen, där uppsatsens empiri tolkas med hjälp av legitimitetsteorin, intressentteorin samt institutionella teorin. Uppsatsens slutsats visar på att EU-direktivet haft en positiv påverkan på den klimatrelaterade hållbarhetsredovisningen. Vidare påvisas även en positiv relation mellan bolagens storlek och kvaliteten av den klimatrelaterade hållbarhetsredovisningen. / The purpose of this thesis is to examine the climate-related sustainability report in Swedish State owned enterprises during the years 2016 and 2020 to find out if any change in quality can be observed and what factors affect each year. The climate-related sustainability report of 40 state-owned companies is reviewed for two years. The thesis’ research questions and hypotheses are examined on the basis of a quantitative research approach, where a content analysis of the companies’ sustainability reports is carried out for each year. By quantifying the sustainability information, empirical data is created and analyzed. The foundation of the analysis is the theoretical framework, where the thesis’ empirics are interpreted with the help of legitimacy theory, stakeholder theory and institutional theory. The conclusion of the thesis shows that the EU directive has had a positive impact on the climate-related sustainability report. Furthermore, a positive relationship is also demonstrated between the companies’ size and the quality of the climate-related sustainability report.

Master Thesis deals with the Corporate Social Responsibility concept (CSR). This thesis is divided into theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part is engaged in explaining basic knowledge, also evolution of the corporate social responsibility concept in historical context and company activities in the economic, environmental and social area. The object of practical part, is to analyse and measure reports on corporate social responsibility according to the GRI Guidelines.