Sustainability Reporting in State Universities: An Investigation of Italian Pioneering Practices

none3noRecent years have witnessed an increasing interest towards sustainability reporting from scholars all over the world, especially focusing on large corporations. Research has only recently been carried out regarding sustainability reporting in the public sector; however, very few studies have been published with reference to universities. In Italy, despite the fact that sustainability reporting is not mandatory, two guidelines have been issued to promote it within state universities. To date, only few studies have been published on this topic. To bridge this gap, the current work aims to review and assess the state of sustainability reporting in Italian state universities and therefore it contributes to the international debate about the development of sustainability reporting in the public sector. In doing so, this paper represents one of the first attempts at investigating sustainability reports in universities, and more broadly in the public sector.The International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD) addresses issues of sustainable economic, environmental, and financial development in advancing, developing, and transitioning economies through eco-innovation and eco-entrepreneurship-driven ideas and solutions. This journal contains a cross-disciplinary focus and presents leverage synergies from the synthesis of knowledge, learning, and experience from diverse fields of theory and practice. IJSESD provides coverage of timely and significant issues of sustainability and development with social ecology-driven concepts and practices. The mission of the International Journal of Social Ecology and Sustainable Development (IJSESD) is to establish a new set of platforms for intellectual discourse and identification of critical and strategic emerging issues, the formulation of cogent and useful policies, and practice recommendations. IJSESD covers matters that relate to and combine social ecology and sustainable development issues and trends within diverse contexts such as eco-innovation, eco-entrepreneurship, e-development (e-learning, e-health, e-business, e-government, and e-society), governance, environment, education, economy, civil society and policy, health, transportation, defense, energy, and other related global issues with local impact. Benché il lavoro sia frutto dello sforzo congiunto degli autori, -il paragrafo INTRODUCTION, i sottoparagrafi “Instituional framework” e “Reporting process” all’interno del paragrafo FINDINGS sono da attribuire a CARLOTTA DEL SORDO; -i paragrafi HIGHER EDUCATION SYSTEM AND SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING IN ITALY, RESEARCH METHOD, e CONCLUSION sono da attribuire a BENEDETTA SIBONI; -i sottoparagrafi “Report Content and Structure” e “Sustainability Reporting and Planning” all’interno del paragrafo FINDINGS sono da attribuire a SILVIA PAZZI.mixedSiboni B.; Del Sordo C.; Pazzi S.Siboni B.; Del Sordo C.; Pazzi S