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B9043 - SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING

Academic Year 2025/2026

Docente: Federica Farneti
Credits: 6
SSD: SECS-P/07
Language: English

Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
Campus: Rimini
Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in Resource Economics and Sustainable Development (cod. 6760)

Learning outcomes

The course focuses on the relationship between accounting and sustainability from an international and multidisciplinary perspective. More specifically, the course aims to have students appreciate the way theory, regulation and practice contribute to align financial performance and environmental, social and governance indicators (E.S.G.). According to this purpose, the course presents tools comprising a systematic, documented, periodic and objective evaluation of the performance of the organization, management system and processes designed to protect the environment with the aim of: (1) facilitating management control of practices which may have impact on the environment, (2) assessing compliance with company policies; and 3) the systematic examination of the interaction between any business operation and its surrounding. This course aims to: - To encourage a general understanding of Principles and Standards for Environmental Management Systems; - To comprehend the role of information, accounting and reporting in the interaction between business and society; - To reflect on the link between financial and sustainability performance driven by an organizations strategy; - To highlight outstanding best practices and imagine new tools/processes that might have an impact in the future of the accounting practice and or/research.

Course contents

The sustainability reporting course provides knowledge on the various dimensions of accounting and accountability, ethics, social responsibility and sustainability reporting for organisations, stakeholders, regarding corporate social responsibility, business and ethical environment, business and government in global society, the corporate and the natural environment, disclosure of non-financial and diversity information, information included in the non-financial statements or in the separate report verified by an independent assurance services provider.

At the end of the course students will be able to understand:

- why the relationship between business and society is becoming more complex?

- why business people and professionals need to be interested in corporate social responsibility, ethics, accountability and sustainability reporting?

- why business face the need of public scrutiny?

- can ethics be understood and applied in everyday business and how? Also, can ethical behavior contribute to profitability?

- what do we mean by corporate social responsibility, sustainable development, SDGs and sustainability reporting? What is the meaning of social assurance?

- The European Directive 2014/95

- The European Directive 2022/2464 CSRD

How the information included in the non-financial statement or in the separate report are verified by an independent assurance services provider?

- why ecological and environmental problems have forced business and governments to take actions?

The outline of the course is based on the following topics:

1) Organisations, Corporations and its Stakeholders

2) Corporate Social Responsibility

3) Ethics and Ethical Reasoning

4) Organizational Ethics and the Law

5) Global Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability Reporting

6) Frameworks for Sustainability Reporting and related Standards

7) The Directive 2014/95/EU and the Directive 2022/2464/UE

8) Managing Environmental Issues

9) Further topics in line with current literature

Readings/Bibliography

Lawrence, A., Weber, J., Post, J., (2023), Business and Society. Stakeholders, Ethics, Public Policy, McGraw-Hill Irwin (you can purchase this online). Solo alcuni capitoli
La DIRETTIVA 2014/95/UE DEL PARLAMENTO EUROPEO E DEL CONSIGLIO del 22 ottobre 2014 recante modifica della direttiva 2013/34/UE per quanto riguarda la comunicazione di informazioni di carattere non finanziario e di informazioni sulla diversità da parte di talune imprese e di taluni gruppi di grandi dimensioni: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014L0095&from=IT
DIRETTIVA (UE) 2022/2464 DEL PARLAMENTO EUROPEO E DEL CONSIGLIO del 14 dicembre 2022 che modifica il regolamento (UE) n. 537/2014, la direttiva 2004/109/CE, la direttiva 2006/43/CE e la direttiva 2013/34/UE per quanto riguarda la rendicontazione societaria di sostenibilità: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/IT/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32022L2464

Further reading, articles and documents can be suggested during the course.

Further materil to develop case study

Teaching methods

Teaching methods and, possibly, guest speakers

The pedagogical approach is based on a combination of lectures in classes, laboratories, interactive classes, seminars, case study, research, working groups and accounting game.

If possible, guest speakers will be invited to lecture on contemporary issues.

Discussion questions and multiple choices

Assessment methods

With reference April 2026 exam: accounting game, seminar questions and in classess questions

Group Class presentation, accounting game, seminar questions and in classess questions
Case write-up. The groups will consist of a small group of students who will select the case organisation to be analysed.

The case will consist of group work which analyses a particular Italian or international organisation with specific focus on accounting, ethics, corporate social responsibility, sustainability reporting, social and environmental audit. Also, further activity in group or developed by students will be performed. All these activities developed during the course will be evaluated as a great part of the final mark
End of term examination

A final in presennce examination (using EOL) will be held at the end of term and will consist of a number of multiple choices and open questions related to different elements of the course programme. The end of term examination is worth about a half of the final mark of this course.

For other exams (June and September 2026) there will be only exams based on written multiple choices and open questions.

The assessment of the preparation will be based on the following evaluation judgment scale:

- <18: insufficient preparation, thus the student needs to repeat the exam;

- 18-23: sufficient preparation but relating to a limited/or generic number of the course contents;
- 24-27: satisfactory preparation but with some gaps with respect to the course contents;
- 28-30: very in-depth knowledge of all the course contents;
- 30L: excellent knowledge of the course contents.

Enrolment is required to set the exam. Students must enrol via Almaesami platform: https://almaesami.unibo.it/almaesami/welcome.htm, where rules and deadlines to enrol to each exam are indicated.

The exam is written and in presence. The exam involves exercises, multiple choice questions where the correct answer/s can be more than one for each question, discussion questions and open questions. During the exam the EOL platform is used.