The quality of Mandated and Voluntary Sustainability Reporting: France and the U.S.A

Sustainability reporting, also called CSR reporting, is the practice of communicating environmental, social, and economic information and initiatives of a company (non-financial) to its stakeholders. The practice has been inspired by a variety of factors, including the recent threat of climate change, the financial crisis, and evolving governance models. Many different policies are being used around the world to implement it. These policies are either voluntary or mandatory. Through the creation of sustainability tools and existing sustainability standards, this study assesses if mandatory or voluntary standards are more effective for sustainability disclosures. USA’s voluntary reports, and France’s mandatory reports are evaluated according to sustainability reporting criteria developed from the new updated GRI standards and an existing assessment tool.