'Recent developments in social and environmental reporting among italian universities: a critical evaluation of leading edge practices'

Social and environmental reporting in the private sector has been steadily increasing in Italy since the 1990s, whereas public organisations sustainability reporting is undeniably still at an earlier stage. The relative absence of the public sector from social and environmental reporting practices has resulted in a slower uptake of public organisations disclosing their performance towards sustainability, as well as in a misunderstanding around the case for, and applicability of, sustainability reporting to public sector organisations. The paper aims at critically evaluating and assessing the degree of development of Italian public universities’ current practices on social and environmental reporting. It provides answers to four major questions: i) what does the uptake of sustainability reporting by universities mean; ii) what forms of social and environmental reporting are they pursuing; iii) if and how the universitysustainability reporting practice includes globally recognised reporting frameworks, or if it is rather based on “univerisity-tailored” and “mission-driven” methodologies and indicators, and iv) if and how Italian universities which are leading edge reporters have gained any benefit from their accountability experiences, both in terms of internal improvements and external benefits, in terms of stakeholder engagement and communication improvements.