Level of disclosure in sustainability reports in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

Abstract

Objective: Analyze the level of disclosure in sustainability reports in accordance with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), through a descriptive study, with document analysis and a quantitative procedure.  Methodology: The research population comprised all companies listed on B3 that published sustainability reports through their respective websites, in the years 2015 to 2020, the sample being composed of 103 companies. Results: The study points out that the group of organizational profile indicators presented the highest average of disclosure with 96.34%. From another perspective, the groups of items related to market presence, safety practices, indigenous peoples' rights and marketing and labeling had the lowest disclosure rate, 26.10%. It is conclude that as there is greater complexity in the items related to indicators of sustainability reports in accordance with the GRI model, the level of disclosure by companies is reduced. Thus, the complexity of the information of certain items is related to the probability of non-disclosure. Contributions of the study: Therefore, in this study, all indicators of greater and lesser complexity were analyzed, highlighting that as there is greater complexity and effort on the part of companies in the items related to indicators of sustainability reports in accordance with the GRI model, the a lower level of disclosure by companies. In this way, the complexity of the information of certain items is related to the probability of non-disclosure.