Relation between sustainability-related communication and competitiveness in the chemical industry

Abstract

Interests of companies in sustainability-related communication have risen considerably in recent years. This paper focuses on the current state of sustainability-related reporting in chemical industry companies registered in the Association of Chemical Industry in the Czech Republic. It deals with the form and the content of reporting, the importance of different stakeholders in this process as well as benefits of sustainability-related communication and its impacts on competitiveness of the company. This paper summarizes the results of research executed in year 2014. The results of the research showed that chemical industry companies were aware of the significance of sustainability-related communication and they utilized for this communication various types of sustainability-related reports. Companies prefer to report on the environmental and social aspects of their activities primarily in their annual reports, or they issue separate environmental reports. The research verified the relationship between sustainability-related communication and competitiveness. A suitable established high quality system of communication that provides for sufficient information and meets the information requirements of the key stakeholders may significantly contribute to reputation improvement, to increased attractiveness of the company as an employer and thereby to maintain, to improve respectively, the level of company competitiveness.