How have the guidelines in the EU-directive influenced large Swedish companies in their implementation of sustainability?

Abstract

Background: Sustainability has become a subject of increased importance and a driving force for companies’ engagement in sustainability reporting. In order to ensure a minimum level of engagement and to increase transparency and comparability between companies a new directive, amending directive 2014/95/EU, is conducted by the European Union. Problem Discussion: Sustainability has many definitions and it is often up to the company to decide what to include in the sustainability reports. The EU-directive provide companies with guidelines, but the directive also leaves room for interpretation on how and what to measure. Purpose: To increase knowledge of the implementation and outcome of the EU-directive regarding sustainability reporting in large Swedish companies. The report aims to create an understanding of how attitudes towards sustainability affect the outcome of mandatory sustainability reporting and if the EU-directive is a considerable driving force in large Swedish companies’ implementation of sustainability. Research Question: How have the guidelines in the EU-directive influenced large Swedish companies in their implementation of sustainability? Method: This is a qualitative, interview-based study. The research is conducted with 14 well known large Swedish corporations, haphazardly selected within different industry sectors out of the companies included by the EU-directive. The interviews are conducted over the phone with one employee, who is engaged in sustainability, at each corporation. Results and Analysis: As a general empirical finding, the attitudes towards the directive is that the respondents have been positive or neutral and that most of the respondents are suggesting future improvements to facilitate compliance to sustainability reporting. Swedish organizations seem to be well prepared. The directive has therefore not influenced the large Swedish organizations to a great extent when it comes to sustainability implementation.