ESG reporting: analysis of the role of technology in supporting the compliance

Abstract

ESG reporting has gained importance through the years and become an important aspect considered by companies. ESG compliance regulation results fragmented, between government legislation and ESG frameworks, which have been the first guidance for the standardization of ESG reporting. At the same time, ESG reporting requires manual effort in collecting and analyzing the relevant data. A recent trend is the use of technology for the automation of the data collection and the final presentation of ESG performance. Customized softwares can assist the process for the realization of the report and evolve with the latest ESG requirements. Previous studies have focused on the complexity of ESG regulation landscape and the reasons behind the voluntary ESG disclosure of companies. In this study, the aim is to understand whether technology can be a support to ESG reporting, by highlighting the possible benefits or adversities derived by the use of a disclosure management tool for complaining and understand whether technology is really simplifying the ESG reporting buildup.