ABSTRACT
Today in many countries such as South Africa, Denmark, and France the vast majority of the largest companies produce some form of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, not least because it is mandated by their countries' financial statements acts. Financially and non-financially, if CSR reporting is to be useful to others, it should be possible to compare content across companies and over time. This chapter presents arguments on whether CSR is worthwhile and the uses to which investors can actually put CSR reporting. The rules and guidelines that currently exist internationally are presented, followed by a section on the rules that ought to exist if investors are to maximize the benefits of CSR reporting. The chapter shows how to combine these available, comparable, and validated CSR data with financial data, so that CSR data are immediately usable by the investor.
