SDG walking or washing? A cross-sectoral analysis of business contribution to the SDGs

Scholars and practitioners have increasingly focused on how business contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is disclosed through SDG reporting. However, corporate sustainability literature and practice suggest that SDG reporting may be purely symbolic, potentially leading to SDG washing. This paper proposes two indices to detect, through their discrepancy, the presence of symbolic approaches to SDG reporting. The SDG Coverage Index measures the completeness of the disclosed SDG-related data, while the SDG Commitment Index describes the level of detail in the disclosed data, assessed according to SDG-related Global Reporting Initiative indicators. The paper presents a content analysis of the sustainability reports of 376 companies to measure SDG coverage and commitment. The results suggest that, although companies tend to cover a wide range of SDG-related indicators, this does not necessarily translate into significant commitment to the SDGs, revealing the presence of symbolic approaches and potential SDG washing practices.