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Sustainability reporting initiatives have grown in popularity over the past decade, however the history of sustainability reporting in China is much shorter. The report documents the current status of sustainability reporting in China and highlights key trends.

The review finds that though sustainability reporting is in its infancy, interest is growing:

• since 2006, the number of sustainability reports has increased steadily, reaching eighteen in 2006 with an expected increase in 2007
• the primary drivers of sustainability reporting are raising corporate image, supporting government policies, and increased enterprise management consciousness and media pressure
• the public, consumers, NGOs, and local communities have had limited influence on sustainability reporting
• the main factors impeding the development of sustainability reporting are a lack of awareness among management and stakeholders.

The report highlights the current status of sustainability reporting in China, pointing to the current trends:

• sustainability reports published by enterprises in China mostly follow the guidelines set by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the triple-bottom-line principle
• Chinese sustainability reports do relatively well in terms of their presentation of performance, governance, and strategy. Yet at the same time, we found that Chinese sustainability reports are not strong in management indicators, nor did they do well in the areas of accessibility of information and assurance
• heavily polluting enterprises perform better than moderately polluting enterprises
• companies providing for corporate clients (B2B) do better on average than companies providing direct goods and services to consumers (B2C).

The authors argue that sustainability reporting will continue to sustain its momentum, with the GRI guidelines becoming the primary framework for such reporting.

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