Demand for sustainability reporting in Malaysia is increasing as a result of lack of
sustainability practices, especially among companies in the category of environmental-
sensitive industry. Sustainability is an approach that helps to integrate the business
performance in all three dimensions of sustainability which are economic, environmental
and social. It requires sound management that links the environment and social
information with financial information under one report known as sustainability
reporting. Sustainability reporting is not a new concept or way of reporting. The practices
exist way back before corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting was made
mandatory. However, the inconsistency in the way companies are producing the report
raises the concern of stakeholders. The company management seems to be unconvinced
on the benefits of sustainability reporting. The purpose of this study is to investigate the
level of Sustainability Reporting practices of the Malaysian public listed companies, and
it impacts on the financial performances of the companies. The study selected 107
companies with a market capitalisation of more than RM2 billion as the sample. The data
for the study is obtained from the Annual Reports with the financial year ending 31st
December 2017 and 2018. The result showed that the level of sustainability reporting
practices among Malaysian companies has increased in the year 2018 compared to 2017.
Besides, the study found that none of the sustainability dimensions is associated with
financial performance, either if the performance is proxy with ROA or ROE. This finding
indicated that other relevant factors might influence company financial performance than
predicted in the study. Thus future research should consider this limitation in exploring
sustainability reporting practices and company performance.
