Sustainability reporting within the shipping industry - An exploratory study of the ten largest container shipping companies

Abstract

The shipping industry is one of the driving forces of the global economy, and sustainability issues are of key importance to the future of our world. Therefore, this thesis will combine them and look at sustainability within the shipping sector by doing an exploratory study of the ten largest container sh ipping companies . Sustainability reporting is becoming commonplace among larger companies, and therefore this thesis sets out to look at what is reported and the quality level. First, a literature review is conducted to look at, among other, the history, current state, quality aspects and previous research into sustainability reporting. Then a content analysis with a scoring system is developed. This is based on the most commonly used framework, the GRI Guidelines, which are then adopted for the shipping in dustry. The quality aspects are attached to transparency, materiality, stakeholder engagement, KPIs and assurance. Furthermore, this thesis sets out to identify further research topics within sustainability reporting and especially within the shipping industry.