An Exploration of Health and Safety Information in Sustainability Reports Based on GRI 403 Occupational Safety and Health 2018 Guidelines

Abstract

Environmental information has been included in sustainability reports for several years; however, some organizations have recently focused sustainability on other areas, such as social responsibility and economic information. The current study examined the frequency of reporting health and safety data of Fortune 100 companies communicated in sustainability reports, especially when the disclosed information may not be positive. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) first established their guidelines for sustainability in 2000 as part of their goal to address this problem (Occupational Safety and Health Administration, 2017). The methodology for the study utilized these guidelines in two cycles of qualitative content analysis using ATLAS.ti 8 software. The initial Cycle One results (n=77 documents) revealed that health and safety information was reported most frequently in sustainability reports (SRs) and corporate social responsibility (CSRs) reports for three sectors: financials, services, and technology. From these results, the study turned its focus on the technology sector in Cycle Two (n=13 documents). Using GRI 403 guidelines, which suggest reporting ISO 45001, initial results of Cycle Two revealed that reporting on OHSAS 18001 and ISO 45001 occurred in less than 30 percent of these documents. Despite some companies reporting zero fatalities, corporate communications of “death” listed in SRs and CSRs were primarily community health-related rather than occupational-related. To verify the data, OSHA inspection data was checked for fatalities and catastrophes to determine if any had occurred within the study period. The results showed that specific work-related injuries such as burns, hernias, or amputations were not reported frequently in the texts, diverging from the suggested GRI 403 guidelines. The study also revealed that the technology sector was reporting health and safety information and while this information is becoming more prevalent in technology companies' SRs, there is still a need to increase reporting of both positive and negative health and safety performance to meet GRI 403 guidelines.