Climate change is upon us and the European continent is striving towards reaching the goals set up throughout the EU-green deal, the overarching transitioning plan for Europe to reduce its emissions by 55% by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2050. One of the newest frameworks to facilitate this change is the corporate sustainability reporting directive. The directive affects big companies and is written in such a way that the coverage of the scope is gradual, so today only listed firms are covered. This research investigates how companies not yet covered by the directive adapt their communication and efforts to align with the directive. It does this by studying the aim: This report aims to explain motives for small and unlisted companies while communicating their corporate social responsibility reporting. The overall objective of the project is to understand their communication and connection to the CSRD- and hence how they prepare for new environmental legislation. It will do this by looking into four IT and consultancy firms based in Stockholm where marketing material as well as sustainability reports has been viewed. The research was done with a flexible design and builds on a literature review covering CSR historic communication, legitimacy theory, Stakeholder theory, and the Triple bottom line, altogether constructing the conceptual framework. The results show that companies communicate by sense giving characteristics in a one-way fashion. Business should involve their stakeholders more in their communication, enabling them to be fast movers concerning the CSRD as well as by competitive reasons. It also shows the value of including external stakeholders. The results also show that companies' communication is focused on the social aspects of sustainability, it is misplaced in focus, and to communicate in line with the CSRD they should communicate emissions as well as anti-corruption, equality, and employee rights. Even though unnoted companies are not covered, there are clear advantages of reporting in line with the directive.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-534294 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Jacobsen-Lööv, Jacob |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för geovetenskaper |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Examensarbete vid Institutionen för geovetenskaper, 1650-6553 ; 2024/30 |
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