Governança corporativa em movimento: o ESG e a materialidade dos relatórios de sustentabilidade

Abstract

Corporate governance is in motion. Given the increasing changes observed in this field, this dissertation provides reflections on sustainability reports as corporate governance instruments that disseminate ESG (environmental, social and governance) information, with a focus on materiality. To this purpose, two theories of corporate governance were examined to verify how close their central aspects are to ESG, the Agency Theory and the Stakeholder Theory. The aim was to identify the characteristics of sustainability reports, as well as the materiality of the ESG information disclosed in these documents and the stakeholder engagement. In order to provide evidence, a study was conducted, 78 (seventy-eight) companies listed in the Corporate Sustainability Index of the Brazilian Stock Market (ISE B3) were analyzed to understand the general and specific aspects of corporate governance and to observe the application of materiality as a compass for the implementation of ESG. It was concluded that there continues to be a need for standardization in presenting materiality, which complicates the understanding of sustainability reports and the comparison of different companies. This study highlights the need to improve transparency and standardize sustainability reporting to measure ESG.