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CIRCULAR ECONOMY AND SDGS REPRESENTED INSUSTAINABILITY REPORTS OF THE TOP REVENUE EUROPEAN COMPANIES OF THE FOOD, BEVERAGE, AND TOBACCO SECTOR

Aluno: Diogo SimÕes Balula


Resumo
Companies are increasingly committed to implementing strategies related to the Circular Economy (CE), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This requires the development of guidelines for consistent external communication. The fields of non-financial reporting and sustainability have wellestablished international reporting frameworks and approaches, with the most used being the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework. This study aims to analyse how CE, SDGs, and CSR are reported in the sustainability reports of the top revenue companies in the food, beverage, and tobacco sector among the top 500 European revenue companies listed in the Fortune Europe 500 list. The data collection method used involves conducting a keyword search in sustainability reports to understand the CE approach. To address the SDGs, a method that combines the GRI standards with SDGs in sustainability reports was employed. Moreover, the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) was analysed by aligning the SDGs collected from the reports with the appropriate environmental, social, and economic aspects. The obtained results led to conclusions regarding the level of circularity in the sustainability reports. It was found that companies in the food, beverage, and tobacco sector mainly focus on minimizing waste and resource consumption throughout the product lifecycle, this involves optimizing manufacturing processes to reduce material waste, energy consumption, and pollution. In terms of disclosing reports and complying with GRI standards, there is still much room for improvement regarding SDGs. The link between CSR and TBL was analysed, and it was concluded that the environmental dimension had the highest TBL disclosure in all reports, indicating that SDG practices are having a significant impact on the natural environment and are operating in a way that minimizes harm to environment.


Trabalho final de Mestrado