How does sustainability reporting pay back?

Since 1987 sustainability has dominated the discourse in relation to environmental protection, though the concept has a broader scope that includes social and economic aspects. In the 1980’s innovative ways to produce were explored to produce more resources efficiently whilst this also prevented any contamination. This change is recognized as the move from end of pipe solutions to the clean production type. This latter provoked a paradigm shift when producers identified in the 1990s the opportunity to design the products in a waste less system approach whilst keeping their quality and functionality. After it, the producers try to manage their environmental improvements that could also be accountable either to improve their reputation and/or attract responsible investments. This sustainable accountability became certifiable by organizations as ISO, Global Impact, Global Reporting Initiative, among other certifying entities. This new type of environmental management represented an additional concern for producers as it also enables comparison in terms of sustainability. At present, financial entities look at producers’ sustainability credentials to approve loans and promote investments. Lately, the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria have been reported as reference for responsible investors. Hence, in this paper, we explored several questions: (i)how ESG has been adopted by producers in Latin America? (ii)How that governance has become the focus in relation to sustainable investment? (iii)What have been the benefits? In order to respond those questions, we analyzed producers in Brazil, Mexico and Chile which were ranked by RobecoSam in 2018 among the best sustainability report holders.