Reporting Standards (she/her)? : A Comparison of ESRS and GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards from an Ecofeminist Viewpoint

Abstract: This thesis aims to find ecofeminist perspectives in sustainability reporting standards using content analysis and comparison. The most used sustainability reporting framework is GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), but the EU has introduced a new one, the ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standard). The new framework will be mandatory for many European companies starting in 2024. For the scope of this master thesis, we focused on the social standards in ESRS and GRI. Our findings show that both standards include some ecofeminist perspectives. Key similarities are the emphasis on gender and workers, whereas key differences are the need to include different perspectives and the willingness to implement change together. The results show that ESRS includes more ecofeminist perspectives in the social reporting standards. The fact that ESRS is also a mandatory framework within the EU, whereas GRI is voluntary, pushes forward the notion and hope that ESRS will bring a more sustainable future to Europe.