First Name:
Margaret
Last Name:
Ovington
Major Department:
Accounting
Thesis Director:
Tracy Reed
Date of Thesis:
May 2013
This paper explores the current sustainability reporting and assurance practices in the United States, to provide recommendations for the future. The current reporting environment has many flaws, namely a lack of comparability and high information risk associated with sustainability reports resulting in reduced usefulness to company stakeholders. Nordic countries have had government regulation requiring sustainability reporting for several years and can be used as a basis for recommendations for the United States. Regulations in these countries stipulate specific information that must be included in their reports, and some have presentation guidelines as well. Based on the environmental reporting regulations in these countries, the United States needs to require specific sustainability information to be required as part of annual reports. The foreign countries examined, do not require external assurance, but it should be included in United States regulations to decrease the information risk associated with sustainability reports. In general, sustainability reporting and assurance should be required for public companies in the United States. However, some companies should be exempt from sustainability reporting regulations. These companies would include small businesses that are not in environmentally hazardous industries. Their impact would be small enough that the costs associated with preparing the report and obtaining assurance would outweigh the benefits of the information.