The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) has released a report, Raising the Bar – Advancing Environmental Disclosure in Sustainability Reporting, which calls on companies to do more to address the environmental and social impacts of their operations, as required in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The report found that companies typically disclose data in four key areas: Greenhouse Gas Emissions,  Energy, Water, and Materials/Waste.  However, the quality of those reports may be insufficient to represent the full impacts of a company’s use of resources and materials on the environment and on communities.

UNEP’s report assesses the environmental dimension of sustainability-reporting and provides recommendations to make environmental sustainability reporting important to all stakeholders. It analyses what the key and most common environmental disclosure items are and provides practical recommendations for companies and other reporting organizations on how these items should be measured and reported, supported with best practice examples.

It also explores emerging areas of research in this domain, as well as innovative reporting practices. The report contributes to the implementation of paragraph 47 of the Rio+20 Outcome Document, through the identification and dissemination of models of best practices on corporate sustainability reporting.