CBS Sustainability Seminar Series: SDGs and Non-Financial Reporting
Wednesday, April 25, 2018 - 15:00 to 17:00
Copenhagen Business School, Dalgas Have DH 2V.071 (The 2nd floor, west wing of the building)
Non-Financial reporting is becoming more and more common, but to what extend can Non-Financial Reporting be seen as a driver for change? In this session, we will discuss the flaws of existing (non-financial) reporting systems, the role of ‘doing no harm’ versus ‘doing good’, and the added value of the SDGs to reach a more holistic approach to sustainability. As interim academic director of the CSR Centre, Professor Karin Buhmann will open the session, followed by a presentation by Anthony Abbotts (Director Group Sustainability, ROCKWOOL Group, Copenhagen), Associate Professor Caroline Pontoppidan (Department of Accounting and Auditing, CBS) and Senior Lecturer Amanda Sonnerfeldt (Department of Business Administration, Lund University), Karin Buhmann (Department of Management, Society and Communication, CBS), and Mikkel Larsen (Chief Sustainability Officer, Development Bank of Singapore).
§ Anthony Abbotts has broad global experience within sustainability in business and the public sector working within this area for over 20 years. He currently is heading up and driving the Sustainability agenda in the ROCKWOOL Group, a company where sustainability is an integral part of the business, not least within the areas of energy efficiency/climate change, circular business, health, safety and welfare, and water management. Anthony has had various positions in Coloplast, COWI, where he was House consultant for Intel EMEA and Biogen Idec for a number of years and now Rockwool International. During this session, Anthony Abbotts will share his experience with how ROCKWOOL Group works strategically with SDGs focusing on minimizing negative “footprint” impacts and maximizing positive “handprint” impacts. In order that companies are held accountable to the SDGs, it is important that a company’s contribution to the SDGs is made tangible. ROCKWOOL does this by striving to quantify positive impact over time.
§ While Associate Professor Caroline Pontoppidan’s research focuses on the emergence and travel of new standards and the regulatory mechanisms in the field of financial reporting and auditing, Senior Lecturer Amanda Sonnerfeldt researches transnational standard setting and the regulation of corporate reporting and auditing from both historical and contemporary perspectives. Together, they will present their research on integrated reporting in the case of Bristol City. In 2015, Bristol City won the EU Green City Award. As this award requires some reporting, the city mobilized efforts to create a Non-Financial Report. However, this turned out to be a yearlong project and at the end, the reporting frame was not completely embraced. Through this case, Caroline and Amanda will highlight the challenges with implementing Non-Financial Reporting in practice.
§ Professor Karin Buhmann will bring in a critical perspective to the discussion about mandatory versus voluntary Non-Financial Reporting. Sharing her research on mandatory Non-Financial Reporting and the regulatory approach deployed by Denmark (since 2008) and the EU's Non-Financial Reporting Directive, which is currently entering into force across the EU, Karin will touch upon questions such as: Is mandatory Non-Financial Reporting driving organizational change? How to avoid mandatory Non-Financial Reporting being perceived mainly as an (administrative) burden by firms? What are the benefits of mandatory Non-Financial Reporting to companies, and how can this be communicated externally and internally?
§ Mikkel Larsen will contribute with his perspective from a leading preparer in Financial Industry of Sustainability Reporting. DBS is the largest bank is South East Asia and the first Singaporean bank to report under GRI and the first listed company in SEA to adopt Integrated Reporting. DBS is also committed to follow TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) . Being also a member of the GRI’s Global Advisory Board, Mikkel will share his broad experiences with Sustainability Reporting in the global field and focus on the complexity of integrating a Sustainability Report into an Annual (integrated) report with the purpose of articulating the strategic value of ESG.
Sign-Up
Please sign up until the 20. April 2018 by sending an email to Lot Elshuis, lel.msc@cbs.dk.
The page was last edited by: Centre for Sustainability // 02/22/2021