ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the legal and ethical dimensions of sustainability reporting. It explains the applied methodology and describes the sample of the empirical study, while the results are presented and discussed thereafter. The chapter analyses in the DACH region about whether, and to what extent, the overall sample of listed groups in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland informs about sustainability and ethics. A perspective of sustainability embraces the complementary combination of ecological, economic, and social goals. Sustainability and ethical aspects in annual reports are almost exclusively expressed by verbal narratives which consequently demands the application of a qualitative text analysis for empirical research. Apart from different legal requirements, the direction of impact is obvious: financial information matters. The social dimension becomes more tangible and applicable, applying as well the principle of responsibility and the principle of justice as using human rights as ethical frame of reference.
