Although businesses have extended their efforts towards addressing their environmental responsibilities, there are still substantial gaps, especially in their approach to biodiversity loss. It is one of the biggest threats to humankind and corporate activities are known to contribute substantially to the deterioration of ecosystems which makes these omissions particularly worrisome. The voluntary global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) framework has the potential to bring about the transformative change needed to improve biodiversity reporting (BDR), but this connection is rather understudied. This work therefore wants to bridge this literature gap by exploring the role SDGs 14 and 15 play in biodiversity reporting. To that end, the sustainability reports of large German companies were evaluated. A mixed-method approach was applied consisting of statistical testing an assumed association between using SDGs and the quality of BDR and a content analysis of SDG and BDR practices. One main finding is, that increased utilisation of SDG 14 and/or 15 goes hand in hand with better BDR but developed independently and rather as a result of increased biodiversity awareness within corporations. This might be the result of a combination of normative and coercive pressure. The second main finding is that overall, there are tendencies to integrate SDG 14/and or 15 but those are marginal, far from the transformational change needed and overshadowed by misleading reporting practices that fall under the greenwashing umbrella. These findings contribute to our understanding of voluntary frameworks like the SDGs on corporate governance by highlighting how they are currently underutilised.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-205282 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Zelck, Maike |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för tema |
| 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 |
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