State of the art of non-financial reporting and impact accounting

• Author(s): Conde, Sofia ; Ferreira, Nuno ; Lancastre, Filipa
• Date: 2025
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/55443
• Origin: Veritati - Repositório Institucional da Universidade Católica Portuguesa
• Document Type: Report
• Language: English
• Contributor(s): Veritati

Description

Non-financial reporting has become a global norm, with regulatory and societal pressure driving companies to disclose their sustainability performance. Since early 2024, over 250 firms have reported under the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), reflecting a broader shift toward mandatory ESG disclosures. Today, 95% of the world's largest companies publish sustainability reports, and over half have a sustainability director. ESG reporting, rooted in CSR efforts since the 1950s and formalized by the UN in 2004, has evolved through global frameworks such as GRI, ISSB, and the EU's ESRS. While these standards promote transparency and long-term value creation, challenges remain, including fragmentation, limited outcome measurement, and greenwashing concerns. A promising development is impact accounting, an emerging approach that monetizes environmental and social externalities to reveal a company's full value creation. It translates non-financial data into financial insights, promising better decisions and strengthening stakeholder trust. The field is advancing rapidly, led by organizations like IFVI, VBA, and IEF, with support from global coalitions and initiatives. Through collaborative efforts such as the Value Accounting Network, actors are building the foundations for consistent, rigorous, and actionable sustainability measurement, marking a critical shift toward impact-integrated business and financial systems.