SDG-Driven Accounting Disclosure: Redefining Corporate Reporting for Global Goals

Dear Colleagues,

As corporations strive to demonstrate credible progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the accounting profession faces an urgent need to strengthen the measurement, reporting, and assurance of SDG-related information. This Special Issue focuses on advancing accounting- and auditing-specific frameworks that embed SDG metrics into formal reporting systems, enhancing the reliability, comparability, and decision usefulness of sustainability disclosures. While multinational corporations have taken early steps, substantial gaps remain in developing rigorous measurement tools, standardized reporting procedures, and assurance methodologies applicable across diverse organizational contexts, including SMEs, family businesses, and entities in emerging markets.

This Special Issue prioritizes research that develops robust SDG measurement systems, integrates SDG indicators into accounting processes, evaluates assurance practices under emerging standards such as ISSA 5000, and examines the role of digital technologies in generating reliable, verifiable SDG data. By emphasizing methodological rigor and alignment with the mandates of standard-setting bodies (ISSB, IAASB, IPSASB), the issue aims to solidify the accounting profession’s contribution to achieving the 2030 Agenda.

Focus, Scope, and Purpose

Focus

This Special Issue centers on the development, integration, and assurance of SDG accounting metrics within corporate reporting systems. The emphasis is on accounting measurement, reporting procedures, verification, and methodological rigor necessary for credible SDG disclosures.

Scope

The scope concentrates on three central axes:

Axis 1: SDG Measurement and Accounting Integration

• Development and validation of SDG-related accounting metrics;
• Integration of SDG indicators into financial and sustainability reporting processes;
• Alignment with reporting standards (GRI, ISSB, SASB, IPSASB);
• Methods for materiality assessment, quantification, and SDG impact measurement.

Axis 2: SDG Assurance and Auditing Practices

• Assurance methodologies for SDG disclosures, including digital reporting environments;
• Practical implications of ISSA 5000 and related assurance standards;
• Auditor challenges in evaluating non-financial and impact-oriented data;
• Reliability, independence, and evidence sufficiency in SDG verification;
• Internal audit’s evolving role in SDG governance and risk management.

Axis 3: Contextual Applications and Reporting Infrastructure

• Comparative studies across organizational sizes (MNCs, SMEs, family businesses);
• SDG reporting capacities in emerging markets (MENA, Asia-Pacific, Africa);
• Digital innovations enabling automated, verifiable SDG measurement;
• Cost-benefit analyses and feasibility of SDG reporting investments.

These three axes ensure coherence and a strong accounting–auditing identity while allowing diverse methodological and contextual contributions.

Purpose

The Special Issue aims to achieve the following:

• Advance rigorous SDG measurement systems suitable for accounting practice;
• Clarify methodologies for integrating SDG metrics into established accounting and reporting frameworks;
• Strengthen the reliability and assurance of SDG disclosures during the final years of the 2030 Agenda;
• Provide scalable tools and evidence-based frameworks to support organizations, especially SMEs and emerging market entities, in producing verifiable SDG reports;
• Contribute to standard-setting dialogues involving ISSB, IAASB, IPSASB, and related bodies.

Relationship to Existing Literature and Distinctiveness

This Special Issue builds on sustainability accounting traditions represented within the Accounting and Auditing Editorial Board, particularly work on integrated reporting, sustainability measurement, governance, and assurance.

Theoretical Contribution

While seminal works (Adams & Frost, 2008; Eccles & Krzus, 2010; de Villiers et al., 2014; Bebbington & Unerman, 2018) establish foundational frameworks, they leave unresolved the operational challenge of translating SDGs into measurable accounting indicators. Our SI explicitly addresses this gap through a focus on measurement, integration, and verification.

Methodological Distinctiveness

Unlike prior MDPI Special Issues on sustainability, this SI emphasizes the following:

• Empirical validation of SDG measurement models;
• Auditing and assurance methodologies for SDG data;
• Integration with financial accounting processes;
• Alignment with emerging global standards (e.g., ISSA 5000).

Geographical and Organizational Extension

Building on Rosati & Faria (2019) and van Zanten & van Tulder (2018), this SI expands the discourse to SMEs, family businesses, and emerging markets—contexts underrepresented yet critical to SDG achievement.

Strategic Novelty

Amid the final stretch to 2030, this SI provides accounting- and auditing-specific tools that support credible SDG disclosures, distinguishing it from broader sustainability-oriented calls.

Dr. Hamood Mohammed Al-Hattami
Prof. Dr. Muhammad Zahid
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Accounting and Auditing is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• SDG accounting
• sustainability measurement
• SDG assurance
• ISSA 5000
• integrated reporting
• non-financial verification
• sustainability reporting standards
• automated SDG data
• accountability
• transparency