Towards a Commonly Accepted ESG Reporting Template for Greek and Cypriot SMEs

Abstract

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting is a revolution in the operation of businesses. In recent years, more and more businesses are required or decide to publish corporate sustainability reports that highlight their performance in the environmental, social, and intergovernmental pillar. The recent Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) includes small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the context of mandatory ESG reporting. The goal of this paper is to provide a model ESG reporting framework to assist Cypriot and Greek SMEs in collecting and disclosing relevant data. A study was conducted to assess the readiness of Greek and Cypriot SMEs to engage in ESG reporting. The results revealed a relatively low level of maturity in this regard. At the same time, there is growing demand to develop a more cost-effective, user friendly, and straightforward ESG framework.