Bidrar GRI till hållbar utveckling? : En studie i statliga bolag

Sammanfattning: Sustainable development is a subject, which has increased in a major scale recently. Aspects such as increased population, pollution and corporate scandals have led to pressure from the society towards companies to make a change. This is to a very high degree of relevance when it comes to public organizations which duty is to contribute to social benefit. Because of this, there is a specification of requirement for public organizations to take the lead when it comes to sustainable development.  In 2007 the government established a directive regarding the public organizations obligation to produce sustainability reports in accordance with the well-known framework Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). The purpose of the study is to find out whether the work conducted after these guidelines have led towards an overall increased work with sustainable development. Given the purpose of the study, it has aimed to contribute with a higher grade of understanding of the concept of sustainable development and sustainability reporting and its various functions. The study has then led towards a discussion regarding GRI and other aspects which may have influenced the sustainable development within public organizations. The study has a qualitative approach where interviews were conducted with eleven different public organizations as well with the organization FAR.  The study proves that sustainable development is still something that is hard to describe but which have a considerable role to fill in companies of today. Sustainable development is increasingly integrated in daily activities. Because sustainable development is integrated in the companies’ activities the sustainability report has gotten a more considerable role as well. The sustainability report fills various functions both internally and externally. It is also explained in the study that corporate governance has had an impact on the sustainable development because the government contribute with specific goals regarding how the public organizations ought to work. Finally the study reaches a conclusion that GRI is one link in the chain towards an increased sustainability within public organizations.