The sustainability report as an application of the updated version of the Conceptual Framework with particular reference to chapter 7 on "disclosure". The case: Basso Sebastiano Srl.

Abstract

The society has evolved becoming increasingly aware, participatory and demanding of companies and communications from them. Not only does it now have the means to inform itself, but it wants to be informed and this need has developed more and more, coming to ask companies to be more open and transparent in their work. This phenomenon, widespread both in Europe and America, has given rise to a series of reflections regarding the need to find a method of reporting for those values, of a non-financial nature, which do not find space in traditional corporate financial statements. Until now, the corporate world has been used to communicating its actions and decisions unequivocally to the outside world, imposing its work, willingly or unwillingly, on society, but this practice is changing. The new market that emerges feels the need to find a meeting point between companies and societies, a place where they can dialogue and not only communicate in a univocal sense. The common society not only wants to be informed about all the economic and social aspects concerning business corporations, but also wants to be able to express its points of view and somehow direct the future choices of companies. In recent years, in fact, the issue of sustainability has taken on an increasingly central role at an economic level. It is now widely believed that, especially in large companies, sustainability represents a tool capable of generating economic benefits, and not a simple cost to be incurred to adapt the company to legislative requirements. However, in small companies that do not have large resources to develop and deepen the issue of sustainability, an effective model has not yet been established that can treat sustainability itself as a resource capable of contributing to the achievement of a competitive advantage. In this complex context, the sustainability report takes shape, a tool that is born primarily by conversing and questioning the categories of stakeholders of the companies on what are the most impacting issues and therefore reflecting on their work and future choices. This report reports both the economic results of the individual company and its contribution to the community, as well as the positive and negative impacts of its work on the environment, trying to pursue the interests of the various subjects involved in operating the business and seeking the difficult balance between the different interests of the stakeholders. The main objective of this thesis is to provide in the first chapter an initial appreciation of the innovations introduced by the Framework for Financial Reporting published by the IASB in 2018, about 30 years after the first version. Taking into account the literature that had commented and analyzed the previous versions of the IASB Conceptual Framework, this contribution aims to recall the innovative scope of the purpose and the qualitative characteristics of the financial statements deriving from the revised Conceptual Framework with particular attention to the introduction of the new chapter 7 on the issue of disclosure. The second chapter deals with reporting on broader corporate social responsibility and environmental issues, focusing on standards applicable both internationally, nationally, and at European level. The third chapter refers in more depth to the issue of disclosure by diversifying the analysis according to the issues disclosed, i.e. financial and non-financial information, demonstrating the importance of communication to the various parties involved, considering the assurance principle of no less importance. The fourth chapter collects the previous evidence and conveys it for the preparation of the Sustainability Report of Basso Sebastiano Srl, a Treviso-based company that selects and packs excellence cheese, that over the years has been able to distinguish itself for the ethical and sustainable approach with which it leverages italian markets and international ones.