Sustainability reporting within the food industry : a case study of regional differences in the plant-based non-dairy industry

Abstract: Sustainability Reporting has emerged and transformed over the past decades as a voluntary practice by companies across industries that desire to show proof of good conduct and environmental; social; and economic responsibility. As industrial food production is one of the largest contributors to contemporary environmental problems, it might be expected that reporting within the industry would be both well established and well understood. Unfortunately, it is neither. In light of the food industry’s considerable environmental impact and the growing popularity of plant-based food as a more sustainable alternative to dairy products, this paper assesses and briefly discusses the Sustainability Reporting of two companies in the plant-based food and beverage industry. The research was designed to compare the practices of Europe-based Alpro and US-based SoDelicious, and this study has two major purposes: to describe the reporting of the case companies and to subsequently compare their practices to the other as well as to global reporting standards. The empirical study in this paper was conducted through content analysis. The sample companies were selected on the basis of their sub-industry membership; location; and practices of sustainability reporting. The Sustainability Reporting analysed were voluntary and publicly available 2013 Sustainable Development reports constructed by each case company. During analysis, their reporting was categorised phrase by phrase, and analysed both by content and disclosure quality/depth. As an explorative study, the results of this research are merely tentative. However, the findings do indicate that in line with legitimacy and stakeholder theories, Sustainability Reporting by these companies is conducted with modified strategies, which seem consistent with certain societal and political characteristics and various stakeholder pressures existent in the two regions. While much of disclosures of both companies are purely narrative - expressing concern for sustainability and environmental issues - this study has highlighted a slightly different focus on diverse categories of disclosure.