Recent developments in social and environmental reporting among Italian Universities: a critical evaluation of leading edge practices

The paper aims at critically evaluating and assessing the degree of development of Italian public universities’ current practices on social and environmental reporting. It provides answers to four major questions: i) what does the uptake of sustainability reporting by universities mean; ii) what forms of social and environmental reporting are they pursuing; iii) if and how the university sustainability reporting practice includes globally recognised reporting frameworks, or if it is rather based on “univerisity-tailored” and “mission-driven” methodologies and indicators, and iv) if and how Italian universities which are leading edge reporters have gained any benefit from their accountability experiences, both in terms of internal improvements (e.g. organizational advances related the use of the social and environmental reporting framework as a management tool within their overall audit, performance evaluation and monitoring system) and external benefits, in terms of stakeholder engagement and communication improvements.