Corporate Social Responsibility and Reporting in Denmark Impact of the second year subject to the legal requirements for reporting on CSR in the Danish Financial Statements Act

CBS has just completed this year?s survey of the quality of large and stock-exchange listed businesses? CSR reporting according to the CSR requirements in the Danish Financial Statements Act, which were adopted in 2008, and which the businesses reported under for the first time in 2010. The requirements entail that businesses must either disclose their CSR policies, how they implement them, and what they have achieved; or state specifically that they do not have CSR policies. In overall terms, the survey shows that the quality of the businesses? information on CSR in the financial statement is steadily increasing. However, there are still some businesses that do not fully meet the legal requirements. As a natural consequence of the fact that this is the second year of legal reporting, the number of businesses reporting for the first time has decreased from 43% to 7%. As most businesses are thus reporting for the second consecutive year the reporting practice has improved significantly. This means, overall, that the Act has encouraged 50% of large Danish businesses to be more open about their CSR initiatives.