Sustainability Accounting and Reporting - A qualitative analysis in Wallonia

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to explore how local governments in Wallonia transform their sustainability accounting and reporting system to address the UN SDGs and how practices develop. The theoretical part, which is divided in 4 chapters, set the context in which the thesis title is formulated, and explores the relationship between the UN SDGs and local governments, defining topic such as SDG Localization and highlighting the challenges and considerations local governments have to take into account during this process of localization. The first part ends with two chapter dedicated to better defining what are sustainable reporting and accounting. Before the result analysis part, a methodology part explains how the cities were selected, how the interviews were planed and organized, and how the results were interpreted. The result analysis is then divided in 7 themes which were recurring during the interview process. Each theme is explained in 3 to 5 points, where the statements of the interviewees are matched with interpretations. The thesis ends with a conclusion chapter, where is described the literary contribution of this work and where recommendations for further academic research, Walloon local governments and the SPW are laid.