Title: Internet-based sustainability reporting

Authors: Ralf Isenmann

Addresses: Department of Business Information Systems and Operations Research (BiOR), Kaiserslautern University of Technology, P.O. Box 3049, 67653 Kaiserslautern, Germany

Abstract: The early stages of corporate environmental reporting – in the late 1980s and early 1990s – have been focused on free-standing environmental reports, produced on print media and usually prepared as ||one size fits all|| universal documents. Using the internet provides an array of benefits and offers a number of capabilities of how to progress in the field, particularly along three dimensions: integration of financial and social issues, provision of reports on various media and fine tuning reports to users| needs and preferences. These trends are pushing the field towards sustainability reporting, based on the internet as a backbone for companies| underlying ICT infrastructure.

Keywords: cross media reporting; customisation; web-based environmental reports; eXtensible Markup Language; XML; Global Reporting Initiative; internet; sustainability reporting; triple bottom line; corporate environmental reporting; sustainability reports.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESD.2004.004700

International Journal of Environment and Sustainable Development, 2004 Vol.3 No.2, pp.145 - 167

Published online: 07 Jul 2004 *

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