Sustainability Reporting Standards for the Public Sector

Dear Colleagues,

Within human development, human existence is endangered by humans themselves. Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, waste disposal, and resource scarcity, to name just a few environmental concerns, are some of the drivers of global crises. Diminishing fundamental resources like clean water, fresh air, fertile land, and critical raw materials are examples of additional problems. Social crises result from neglecting human rights, food supplies, health, and elderly care, maintaining inequalities, unemployment, etc. Economic sustainability requires a balance between economic growth, resource efficiency, social equity, and financial stability; it involves renewable sources and their efficiency, zero waste and circular economy, innovations, quality management, and good corporate governance.

The United Nations accepted 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in 2015 to address the above problems. The International Organization for Standardization has accepted many ISO standards dealing with the SDGs. The United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS) has published many Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSSs) that “guarantee that the products you buy do not hurt the environment and the people that make them”. The G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance are the international standard for corporate governance in shareholder rights, corporate disclosure and reporting, climate-related and other sustainability risks, and opportunities. The EU’s European Green Deal was realized in many directives on the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D).

Several boards were recently established to develop and approve sustainability disclosure standards, e.g., the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) established by the IFRS Foundation, the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB) that is responsible for proposing GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) standards, and EFRAG with European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). However, a lot of work still needs to be conducted in the future.

This Special Issue aims to present recent publications, plans, proposals, and needs for additional standards, which could ensure a better future for humanity. Some of the main topics include the following:

• Air, water, and soil pollution.
• Climate change caused by excessive greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere due to human activities.
• The loss of biodiversity.
• The overexploitation of natural resources, zero waste, and circular economy.
• Economic models that involve unsustainable consumption.
• Poverty and socioeconomic inequality.
• Discrimination, prejudice, and social exclusion.
• Lack of access to resources and critical raw materials.
• Insecurity and conflict, locally, regionally, and globally.
• Poor governance, which includes phenomena such as corruption and institutional inefficiency.
• The responsible management of resources.
• The capacity for efficiency and innovation of economic systems and enterprises.
• Financial stability at the macro level.
• State-level social innovation, that is, each country’s commitment to promoting policies, programs, and initiatives that address crucial social issues such as poverty, gender equality, access to education and health care, environmental sustainability, and other social issues.
• International cooperation and partnerships between public administration and private enterprises.
• The level of equity and social inclusion.
• Corporate responsibility.

Prof. Dr. Peter Glavič
Guest Editor

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-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Standards 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.

• standard
• sustainability
• environmental
• social
• economic
• governance
• reporting