Ranking of sustainability reports 2021 with a conceptual study on corporate digital responsibility

The ranking of sustainability reports has been carried out jointly by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) and the business initiative future e. V. - verantwortung unternehmen since 1994. Based on a comprehensive set of social, environmental, management and communication-related criteria, we evaluate the society-oriented reporting of large German companies as well as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and rank the best reporters. The 2021 ranking is the eleventh round of the competition.

Through the ranking, IÖW and Future aim to contribute to good, stakeholder-oriented sustainability reporting in Germany. The criteria and the regular evaluation provide companies with an orientation framework and thereby initiate learning processes towards sustainability. The ranking of sustainability reports thus also aims to contribute to the further development of companies' sustainability performance.

This ranking will see a number of innovations in terms of content and structure. On the one hand, the content of the ranking criteria will be updated to take into account new requirements and quality levels that companies' CSR management and reporting are confronted with. Closely linked to the content adjustments is a further structural development: important innovations include the further strengthening of the materiality principle, a modularization of the criteria structure and the alignment of the individual criteria with a management approach.

Furthermore, the project will systematically illuminate the significance and scope of corporate responsibility in the context of digitization by means of a conceptual study. To this end, a conceptual framework for corporate digital responsibility (CDR) will be developed, which will be further enhanced and consolidated by comparing potential CDR topics and challenges with the reporting content from the ranking of sustainability reports and through qualified expert feedback.

The results of the ranking of the best sustainability reports will be presented at an expert conference at the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (BMAS) in early 2022.

More information: www.ranking-nachhaltigkeitsberichte.de