This study examines the triple bottom line of sustainability, in the context of both profit-oriented and non-profit oriented organizations. Sustainability is a compound result of interaction between economic, environmental, and social dimensions. Sustainability cannot be achieved without balance between all three dimensions, which has implications for measuring sustainability and prioritizing goals. This study demonstrates a method for measuring organizational sustainability achievement in these three dimensions of sustainability. Content analysis of the annual reports of corporations from the United States, Continental Europe (and Scandinavia), and Asia reveals that the economic dimension remains the preeminent aspect, and corporations still have a long way to go to reach comprehensive sustainability by maintaining a balance between the three dimensions of sustainability. The analysis also shows a high level of isomorphism in the sustainability practices of corporations, suggesting that even the most sustainable corporations are taking a somewhat passive role in prioritizing sustainability goals. A list of 25 terms for each dimension of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social) has been developed which can be used by corporations to develop and communicate their sustainability practices most effectively to the maximum number of their stakeholders. In contrast, botanical gardens demonstrate more balance among the three dimensions of sustainability.

The Master´s Thesis is focused on reporting of Corporate Social Responsibility. The purpose of this thesis is create CSR report for company PATRIA Kobylí, a.s. Theoretical part is dedicated to formation, development and current forms CSR, including advantages and disadvantages CSR. Besides three pillars are mentioned, which are basis for the concept CSR. A part of thesis is focused on CSR reporting, its benefits and trends. Further, applicable standards this concept are introduced. The attention is put on GRI standard and reporting frame G4. Content of practical part are analysis and evaluation current activities in company PATRIA Kobylí, a.s. and create CSR report for this company. The latest version GRI standard G4 was used for create this report.

The Master's thesis deals with the analysis of performance requirements of the standard GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) in selected companies. Standard GRI is considered as an internationally recognized tool for creating reports on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The theoretical part is initially focused on the characteristics of the concept of corporate social responsibility and the included areas, afterwards it describes variety of options how to assess CSR activities. The largest space is devoted to the GRI standard and its most current version of guidelines for reporting G3.1. These guidelines are the background for analysis and evaluation of CSR reports. The result of the analysis is to find shortages and to summarize important steps which should be a guide for companies how to approach to the reporting in better and more efficient way.

Titel From then till now - A study of changes in sustainability reports from 1998-2019. Level Bachelor thesis in Business Administration Authors William Johansson, Johan Finn Rydberg, Thom Werner Tutor Esbjörn Segelod Date 2020-06-09 Keywords Sustainability, Sustainability reports, Signalling theory, Stakeholder theory, Business emissions, Equality, Corruption, Donation, Business Research, GRI, CSR, CSR history, Voluntary disclosure and Legitimacy theory. Research Questions How have the sustainability reports changed in different GRI frameworks and how have it affected companies in different branches, depending on pages and line of business between 1998–2019? How have the word in the categories: environment, social and economic responsibility changed in companies sustainability reports between the years 1998–2019? Purpose The purpose with this study is to examine how businesses sustainability reports associated with energy-, automotive- and forest and paperproduct have effected their sustainability reports from an environmental, social and economical perspecitve from year 1998–2019. Method The method of this study is a quantitative method with a content analysis that consists of 75 sustainability reports in total where 62 of these 75 reports was used. These 62 reports are coming from 25 different companies associated to energy-, automotive and forest and paperpoduction. The study was made of sustainability reports from the year 1998 to 2019. The result of the study encoded to a scheme of code. Conclusion The conclusion of this study shows an increase of the sustainability reports in all three branches. The most of the words shows an increase from 1998-2019. / Titel Från dåtid till nutid - En studie om förändringar i hållbarhetsredovisning mellan åren 1998–2019. Nivå Kandidatuppsats Författare William Johansson, Johan Finn Rydberg, Thom Werner Handledare Esbjörn Segelod Datum 2020-06-09 Nyckelord Sustainability, Sustainability reports, Signalling theory, Stakeholder theory, Business emissions, Equality, Corruption, Donation, Business Research, GRI, CSR, CSR history, Voluntary disclosure och Legitimacy theory. Frågeställningar Hur har företags hållbarhetsredovisning påverkats av förändringen i GRI:s ramverk, mätt i antal sidor samt branschtillhörighet mellan åren 1998-2019? Hur har begrepp inom miljö, socialt och ekonomiskt ansvar förändrats i företags hållbarhetsredovisningar mellan åren 1998–2019? Syfte Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur svenska företag i branscherna fordon, energi samt skog- och pappersproduktion har påverkat sin hållbarhetsredovisning utifrån miljö, socialt och ekonomiskt perspektiv, mellan åren 1998–2019. Metod Studiens tillvägagångssätt är kvantitativ metod med innehållsanalys som var tänkt att bestå av totalt 75 stycken hållbarhetsrapporter men endast 62 stycken kunde användas. Dessa 62 rapporter kommer från 25 olika företag som tillhör energi, skogs- och pappersproduktion och bilbranschen. Studien använde sig av hållbarhetsredovisningar från 1998–2019. Resultatet kodades därefter i ett kodningsschema. Slutsats Den slutsats som kan uppsatsen visar är att en ökning av antal hållbarhetsrapporter har ökat i alla tre branscher. Även de flesta orden påvisar en ökning under 1998–2019.

Our objective of this thesis is to expand the microdata database of publicly available corporate information of the university by web scraping mechanism. The tool for this thesis is a web scraper that can access and concentrate information from websites utilizing a web application as an interface for client connection. In our comprehensive work we have demonstrated that the GRI text files approximately consist of 7227 companies; from the total number of companies the data is filtered with “listed” companies. Among the filtered 2252 companies some do not have income statements data. Hence, we have finally collected data of 2112 companies with 36 different sectors and 13 different countries in this thesis. The publicly available information of income statements between 2016 to 2020 have been collected by GRI of microdata department. Collecting such data from any proprietary database by web scraping may cost more than $ 24000 a year were collecting the same from the public database may cost almost nil, which we will discuss further in our thesis.In our work we are motivated to collect the financial data from the annual financial statement or financial report of the business concerns which can be used for the purpose to measure and investigate the trading costs and changes of securities, common assets, futures, cryptocurrencies, and so forth. Stock exchange, official statements and different business-related news are additionally sources of financial data that individuals will scrape. We are helping those petty investors and students who require financial statements from numerous companies for several years to verify the condition of the economy and finance concerning whether to capitalise or not, which is not possible in a conventional way; hence they use the web scraping mechanism to extract financial statements from diverse websites and make the investment decisions on further research and analysis.Here in this thesis work, we have indicated the outcome of the web scraping is to keep the extracted data in a database. The gathered data of the resulted database can be implemented for the required goal of further research, education, and other purposes with the further use of the web scraping technique.

In 2019, the two Swedish banks Swedbank and SEB was involved in what has been called one of the largest money laundry scandals. Money laundering is a critical sustainability issue for banks since their operations enable money from corrupt activities to be laundered into the financial system, hence diverts resources from education and health services. Corruption is a difficult topic to manage due to its invisible nature, making it hard to detect and measure compared to emissions or compliance with human rights. In the last decades, there has been an increasing demand for organizations to communicate their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) considerations. However, the flexibility allowed by standards and regulation in this area regarding what to disclose have been argued to undermine the reliability of CSR information. There have been discussions whether the banks had informed stakeholders about the anticorruption risks sufficiently, information that primarily should be communicated through sustainability and annual reports. Previous studies examining CSR reporting quality have found that companies present information in different ways, complicating a comparison of information. They have also found that such disclosure has been used as a strategy to highlight only the good work of a company and omit negative disclosures. This study examines the quality of CSR information that is communicated in annual and sustainability reports of the four largest banks operating in Sweden; Nordea, Handelsbanken, Swedbank, and SEB. Our focus is limited to disclosure about anti-corruption for which the Global reporting initiative (GRI) provides principles in terms of what they asses to be good content and quality. We will use these principles when structuring our categories in our qualitative content analysis with quantitative elements and when we analyse and make conclusions of our results regarding the quality. We use a content analysis model called the Consolidated Narrative Interrogation Model (CONI) which integrate both qualitative and quantitative measures of CSR reporting quality. Our result show that anti-corruption disclosure differs in terms of presentation structure, which requirements from GRI that are applied and how much information that is disclosed. The overall conclusion regarding its quality is that it does not meet the reporting quality principles stated in GRI 101: foundation. We find indications of strategic legitimacy in terms of how banks disclose anti-corruption activities which is critical for the overall reporting practise since its purpose it to constitute an accurate and reliable source of information to stakeholders.

The need for water conservation continues to increase as global freshwater resources dwindle. In response, many golf course superintendents are implementing new methods and tools to become more frugal with their water applications. For example, scheduling irrigation using time-domain reflectometer (TDR) soil moisture sensors can decrease water usage. Still, TDR measurements are time-consuming and only cover small scales, leading to many locations being unsampled. Remotely sensed data such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) offer the potential of estimating moisture stress across larger scales; however, NDVI measurements are influenced by numerous stressors beyond moisture availability, thus limiting its reliability for irrigation decisions. An alternative vegetation index, the water band index (WBI), is primarily influenced by water absorption within a narrow spectral range of near-infrared light. Previous research has established strong relationships between moisture stress of creeping bentgrass (CBG) grown on sand-based root zones, a typical scenario for golf course putting greens. However, this relationship characterizes only a small portion of total acreage across golf courses, which limits widespread adoption. In our research, '007' CBG and 'Latitude 36'hybrid bermudagrass (HBG) were grown on three soil textures, USGA 90:10 sand (S), sand loam (SL) and clay (C), arranged in a 2 x 3 factorial design, randomized within six individual dry-down cycles serving as replications. Canopy reflectance and volumetric water content (VWC) data were collected hourly between 0700 and 1900 hr using a hyperspectral radiometer and an embedded soil moisture sensor, until complete turf necrosis. The WBI had the strongest relationship to VWC (r = 0.62) and visual estimations of wilt (r = -0.91) compared to the green-to-red ratio index (GRI) or NDVI. Parameters associated with non-linear regression were analyzed to compare grasses, soils, indices, and their interactions. The WBI and GRI compared favorably with each other and indicated significant moisture stress approximately 28 hr earlier than NDVI (P = 0.0010). WBI and GRI respectively predicted moisture stress 12 to 9 hr before visual estimation of 50% wilt, whereas NDVI provided 2 hr of prediction time (P = 0.0317). When considering the time to significant moisture stress, the HBG lasted 28 hr longer than CBG, while S lasted 42 hr longer than either SL and C (P ≤ 0.0011). Nonlinear regression analysis showed that WBI and GRI can be useful for predicting moisture stress of CBG and HBG grown on three diverse soils in a highly controlled environment. Our results provide substantial evidence and direction for future research investigating how WBI and GRI can expedite moisture stress assessment and prediction on a large-acreage basis. / Master of Science in Life Sciences / Managed turfgrasses provide several benefits including filtering pollutants, cooling their surroundings, generating oxygen, preventing erosion, serving as recreational surfaces, and increasing landscape aesthetics. Intensively managed turfgrass systems, such as on golf courses and sports fields, require more inputs to maintain acceptable conditions. Freshwater use is often excessive on intensively managed turfgrasses to maintain proper plant growth. Drought conditions often limit water availability, especially in regions with limited rainfall. Turf managers tend to over-apply water across large acreage when few localized areas begin to show symptoms of drought. Additionally, turf managers sometimes wrongly identify stressed areas from other factors as ones being moisture-deprived. Advancements such as the use of soil moisture meters have simplified irrigation decisions as an aid to visual inspections for drought stress. While this method enhances detection accuracy, it still provides no solution to increase efficiency. Expanding our current knowledge of turfgrass canopy light reflectance for rapid moisture stress identification can potentially save both time and water resources. The objective of this research was to enhance our ability to identify and predict moisture stress of creeping bentgrass (CBG) and hybrid bermudagrass (HBG) canopies integrated into varying soil textures (USGA 90:10 sand (S), sand loam (SL) and Clay (C)) using light reflectance measurements. Dry-down cycles were conducted under greenhouses conditions collecting soil moisture and light reflectance data every hour from 7 am to 7 pm after saturating and withholding water from established plugs. Moisture stress was most accurately estimated over time using two vegetation indices, the water band index (WBI) and green-to-red ratio index (GRI), with approximately ninety percent accuracy to visible wilt stress. The WBI and GRI predicted moisture stress of CBG in all soil types and HBG in SL and C approximately 14 hours before the grasses reached 50% wilt. While light reflectance varies on exposed soils, our research shows that underlying soils do not interfere with measurements across typical turfgrass stands. This research provides a foundation for future research implementing rapid, aerial measurements of moisture stressed turfgrasses on a broad application of CBG and HBG on constructed or native soils.

Background: Sustainability reporting has become more important for companies, serving as a tool to describe the company’s commitment to and promotion of sustainable development. As a result of the increasing attention to climate and human rights issues, Agenda 2030 was introduced, consisting of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This call for action from all countries, through a global partnership, has further increased the importance of sustainability reporting for companies to report on their commitment to and promotion of sustainable development. Therefore, this study aims to contribute to the unexplored area concerning changes in the content of companies sustainability reports before and after the launch of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Purpose: The purpose of the study is to increase knowledge about how the implementation of the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has affected car manufacturers' sustainability reporting. The focus is on identifying how sustainability reporting has changed and which SDGs are being emphasized. Finally, the study aims to contribute to the literature on institutional theory and isomorphism, to see if it can explain the similarities between the companies' sustainability reports. Method: To fulfill the purpose of the study, a qualitative research method with a deductive research approach was utilized. The study’s data collection was conducted through content analysis, where each company’s sustainability reports were mapped based on excerpts categorized according to themes related to the UN’s 17 SDGs. Conclusion: After conducting the analysis, the conclusion can be drawn that the launch of the UN’s SDGs has not led to a change in companies’ choice of focus area in their sustainability reports, which is explained by the fact that companies previously followed similar guidelines, such as the GRI, which already included similar guidelines covering both economic, social, and environmental aspects. Despite increased expectations for sustainability reporting after the SDG launch, the scope of content and actions in the reports has increased for companies, without necessarily changing focus. They tend to prioritize goals where they have the greatest impact and which interest their stakeholders the most, to maintain legitimacy and credibility. Furthermore, the compilation of the empirical data shows that there are similarities in the themes companies choose to report on. These similarities are explained by the institutional theory, which suggests that companies are driven by institutional pressures from external actors. / Bakgrund: Hållbarhetsrapportering har blivit viktigare för företag och fungerar som ett verktyg för att beskriva företagets engagemang och främjande av hållbar utveckling. Som resultat av den stigande uppmärksamheten kring klimatet och mänskliga rättigheter introducerades Agenda 2030, som utgörs av de 17 globala målen (SDGs). Denna uppmaning till handling från alla länder, genom ett globalt partnerskap, har ytterligare ökat betydelsen av hållbarhetsrapportering för företag för att rapportera om deras engagemang och främjande av hållbar utveckling. Denna studie har därför som avsikt att bidra till det utforskade området kring förändring av innehållet i företags hållbarhetsrapporter före respektive efter lanseringen av FN:s globala mål (SDGs).  Syfte: Syftet med studien är att öka kunskapen om hur införandet av FN:s globala mål (SDGs) har påverkat biltillverkares hållbarhetsrapportering. Fokus ligger på att identifiera hur hållbarhetsrapporteringen har förändrats samt vilka SDGs som ligger i fokus. Slutligen avser studien att bidra till litteraturen kring institutionell teori och isomorfism, ifall det kan förklara likheterna mellan företagens hållbarhetsrapporter.  Metod: För att uppfylla syftet med studien användes en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med en deduktiv forskningsansats. Studiens datainsamling utfördes genom innehållsanalys där respektive företags hållbarhetsrapports kartlades baserat på utdrag som kategoriserades utifrån teman kopplat till FN:s 17 SDGs.  Slutsats: Efter en genomförd analys kan slutsatsen dras att lanseringen av FN:s SDGs inte har lett till en förändring i företagens val av fokusområde i sina hållbarhetsrapporter, vilket förklaras av att företag tidigare följt liknande riktlinjer, som GRI, som redan innehöll liknande riktlinjer som berör både ekonomiska, sociala och miljömässiga aspekter. Trots ökade förväntningar på hållbarhetsrapporteringen efter SDG-lanseringen har företagens omfattning av innehåll och initiativ i rapporterna ökat, utan att nödvändigtvis ändra fokus. De tenderar att prioritera mål där de har störst påverkan och som intresserar deras intressenter mest, för att bevara legitimitet och trovärdighet. Vidare visar sammanställningen av empirin att det finns likheter i de teman företagen väljer att rapportera om. Likheterna förklaras med hjälp av den institutionella teorin, som menar på att företagen drivs av institutionella påtryckningar från externa aktörer.

Jämförbarhet i hållbarhetsrapporten är en nödvändighet för att informationen ska vara användbar för användarna. För att främja jämförbar information ska svenska företag följa hållbarhetslagen som bygger på EU-direktivet om hållbarhetsrapportering. Till sin hjälp kan företagen tillämpa internationella frivilliga ramverk som exempelvis Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). I och med att det finns ett flertal frivilliga ramverk att tillämpa kan företagen välja ifall dem vill följa något ramverk, med det utgör inget krav, för att uppfylla hållbarhetslagen. Detta utrymme av frivillighet bidrar till den stora variation i antalet resultatindikatorer som företagen lämnar upplysningar om i hållbarhetsrapporten, vilket gör att informationen inte blir jämförbar. Denna studie vill bidra med kunskap till forskningsfältet genom att (1) kartlägga jämförbarheten i hållbarhetsrapporter i form av hur utförligt företagen noterade på Stockholmsbörsen Large Cap tillämpar resultatindikatorer till rapporteringskravets kategorier och (2) förklara och analysera sambandet mellan företagens branschtillhörighet, företagens andel kvinnor i styrelsen och utförlighetsnivån i hållbarhetsrapporter som omfattas av hållbarhetslagen. För att besvara studiens syfte genomfördes en kvantitativ innehållsanalys av samtliga företag som uppfyllde kriterierna för hållbarhetsrapportering och GRI:s ramverk på Stockholmsbörsen Large Cap. Resultatet visade att båda sambanden var relativt svaga. Sambandet för företagens branschtillhörighet visade sig något starkare jämfört med andelen kvinnor i styrelsen. Det tyder på att det finns andra underliggande faktorer som påverkar jämförbarheten i hållbarhetsrapporten. / The comparability in the sustainability report is a necessity to serve its main purpose, which is to be useful for the stakeholders. To encourage comparable information in the sustainability report, Swedish companies must comply with the national sustainability law, which is based on the EU directive of sustainability reporting. To comply with the national sustainability law companies can apply international voluntary frameworks such as Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), but there is no imperative requirement. All the voluntary frameworks may contribute to the observed differences of indicators disclosed in the sustainability reports, which makes the information not comparable. This study contributes to the field of research by (1) mapping the comparability in the sustainability reports of firms listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange Large Cap by investigating the level of completeness for the reporting requirements categories and (2) explain and analyse the correlation between the company´s sector, board diversity and the level of completeness of firms that are covered by the national sustainability law. Therefore, a quantity content analysis was conducted on all companies in our sample. The findings display a weak relationship between the investigated variables. This suggest that there are other underlying factors that may affect the comparability in the sustainability reports.

The “statement” from senior decision-maker is a section in the sustainability           report, where the most “senior decision-maker” of the institution (such as CEO,            chairman, or equivalent senior position) gives the personal view about the           relevance of sustainability to the ​institution and its strategy for addressing           sustainability. Such a statement is one medium used by company leaders to            communicate their attitudes and values to stakeholders in sustainability reports.          Under commercial circumstances, sustainability is also referred to as Corporate          Social Responsibility (CSR). This paper analyzes Chinese and Nordics senior decision-makers’ perception of CSR within the banking sector. The research sample consists of statements of senior decision-makers from sustainability reports of four Chinese banks, respective four Nordic banks. Previous studies show that CSR conception is influenced by cultural and social backgrounds. By analyzing respective Chinese/Nordic senior decision-maker’s statement, this study isaimingtofindout how Chinese/Nordic culture and social concepts are promoted in their respective bank institutions, and therefore lead to different CSR focus and strategies. The results from the study show that Chinese senior decision-makers’ statements are strongly influenced by t​raditional Chinese philosophy and social background, especially Confucian and Taoism, as well as​Xi Jinping’s guidelines delivered at the 19th National Congress of the Communist and the 13th Five-Year Plan. In relation to the Nordic senior decision-makers the gender equality and racial equality were noted. Senior decision-makers of Chinese banks mainly focus on “social stability and progress”, “economic responsibility”, and “customers”,while         senior decision-makers of Nordic banks mainly focus on “economic responsibility”, “customers”, and “environmental protection”. / 公司资深决策者(首席执行官，董事长，或同等级别)会在可持续发展报告中 用一个章节来申明他们的观点。这个章节的内容涵盖可持续发展与该公司组 织架构的相关度，以及该公司可持续发展的战略和对策。公司领导通过这种 形式对股东传达公司的态度和价值观。在商业环境中，可持续发展也经常被 称为公司社会责任(CSR)。 本论文分析了中国和北欧银行业资深决策者们对于企业社会责任的认知。本 论文的研究对象是银行可持续发展报告中资深决策者的陈述观点，它们分别 取自4家中国银行和4家北欧银行。现存的研究指出公司社会责任这一概念以 及对其的认知受到文化和社会背景的影响。通过研究中国和北欧不同银行资 深决策者在可持续发展报告中的陈述及观点，本论文意在深入理解文化和社 会因素是如何在公司中得到，并最终影响公司社会责任的实践和战略。 研究结果显示中国传统哲学和社会背景深刻影响中国银行业资深决策者对于 可持续发展的陈述和观点，特别是儒家思想，道家思想，​和​习近平​在​19大​的 报告，​以及​中国​第​十三​个​五​年​规划。而在北欧，可持续发展报告主要受到性 别平等和种族平等方面​的​影响。在银行可持续报告中，中国的资深决策者主 要关注“社会平稳和发展”，“经济责任”，和“客户”，而北欧的资深决策者主 要关注“经济责任”，“客户”和“环境保护”。