The spread of sustainability reporting within companies over the past two decades is mainly due to increased awareness of sustainability issues, stakeholder scrutiny of corporate behavior, and legal obligations. In fact, Directive 2014/95/EU on the disclosure of non-financial information, enacted in 2017, has led to a spike in the adoption of these reporting methods. Most organizations are adopting the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) as their reporting tool, which is intended to align the needs of companies and stakeholders to have transparent information about their sustainability. This type of impact measurement is added to existing tools such as social impact measurement that cooperatives are required to fulfil.

The main question this seminar aims to address is how sustainability reporting and social impact measurement can be valuable tools for cooperatives as well as the potential and limitations of its applicability in the cooperative world. The experiences of practitioners, theoretical perspectives and empirical evidence presented by academics will foster reflections and enrich the discussion on this issue.