Technological developments in information and communication technologies enable the provision of comprehensive information for the management of companies and the presentation of corporate activities to external stakeholders. In addition, the Environmental Information Act (UIG), which regulates free access to environmental information, must be observed by the companies concerned. This influences the way in which information is managed. In particular, the technical provision of environmental information places new demands on the handling of information in an inter-, intra- and extra-organisational context.

The VLBA's research addresses various topics in reporting, which will continue to gain in importance due to current trends, e.g. the demand for decarbonisation to meet climate protection targets:

• Corporate communication: target group orientation and improved presentation of information for internal and external information provision
• Sustainability reporting: trivalent reporting according to Elkington (economy, ecology and social aspects) with the change from purely voluntary reporting to partially mandatory reporting, e.g. through the "Act to strengthen non-financial reporting by companies in their management and group management reports (CSR Directive Implementation Act)"
• Machine-readable exchange formats: Increasingly important for faster provision of data, to avoid media disruptions and due to the increased amount of information that needs to be made available to management to manage and control the company.
• Smart cities: Cities and municipalities are changing in order to meet the requirements of demographic change or changing mobility, for example. Sensor technology will increasingly be used in smart cities in innovative processes to optimise processes such as the collection of waste using intelligent waste bins. This requires transparent and demand-orientated reporting between the processes and citizens or citizens and local authorities.

The variety of topics in the short and non-exhaustive selection shows that reporting is of great importance in companies and that this value is likely to increase further in order to prevent information overload for management and other addressees.

One project in this area is the eco4fin - Environmental Communication Data Platform for the Financial Community research co-operation, which aims to develop stakeholder-oriented environmental reporting.

Contact person

• Dr Andreas Solsbach
• Sven von Höveling, M.Sc.
• Marius Wybrands, M.Sc.