Práticas de relato ESG: uma análise dos relatórios de sustentabilidade de empresas brasileiras listadas no BOVA11 em dezembro de 2021

Abstract

Starting from the premise that development via sustainability occupies the space of a rising knowledge paradigm, the first curiosity that guided this research was the search to understand how the discourse of sustainability is converted into materiality by economic agents. Understanding, from the theoretical framework used, that companies have a leading role in the microeconomic development of sustainability, an investigation was proposed regarding the mechanisms used by organizations to communicate and provide transparency to their sustainability actions and ensure their veracity, in a context in which the ESG discourse is incorporated as a relevant part of brand management and corporate reputation and, consequently, is a determining factor for its value in the stock market. Since its launch in 2006 by the ONU, of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), large companies have been strongly encouraged to incorporate ESG issues into their practices and policies, as well as to disclose their actions related to these issues through sustainability reports. In an initial survey, when checking annual reports from large companies and scientific articles on the subject, it was noticed that there are several recommended global practices so that such reports have a standardized way of communicating ESG actions to stakeholders. Driven by the interest of mapping the options most used by Brazilian companies and understanding their main characteristics, this research has the general objective of identifying the ESG reporting practices used in the annual reports of Brazilian companies listed on the BOVA11 in 2021, chosen BOVA11 portfolio of investment assets as a survey sample as it contains the largest Brazilian companies listed on B3. In the case of an exploratory study that used techniques of content analysis, comparative analysis and descriptive statistics, among the results of this research, it was observed that companies have made great efforts to meet all possible recommendations, mixing in their reports several practices reports, adding external verification mechanisms through letters of assurance from large private consultancies. In the background, what can be seen is the configuration of a parallel market for the manufacture of global reporting standards and their external assurance, which confirms the interest of firms in the sustainability discourse associated with their brands as a way of adding value and achieving competitive advantage in the stock market. On the one hand, the organizational effort to define goals and annually monitor ESG indicators works as a guiding mechanism for the strategic planning discourse of firms, which can signal progress towards a vision of sustainability that reinforces the transition to the sustainable development paradigm. On the other hand, it is possible to identify vulnerabilities in the process of reporting information, given that companies try to meet all standards in force at the same time, making the reporting process complex and inefficient in communicating with their target audience, which seeks communication more objective and assertive. In this scenario, the transition to a single, international reporting standard, promoted by the ISSB initiative, appears as a possible solution to simplify the ESG reporting process, but while such a solution is not consolidated, and while more reliable assurance mechanisms are not consolidated, there is room for for rhetorical gaps between discourse and practice and greenwashing remains a present danger.