article · Communicatio
An assessment of sustainability reporting across the six largest universities in Ghana reveals that while none publish dedicated sustainability reports, all share information relevant to sustainability performance through institutional websites and annual reports. These disclosures typically occur without institutions explicitly labelling the activities as sustainability initiatives. Coverage across different sustainability dimensions varies considerably between the institutions examined, indicating that sustainability reporting practices in Ghanaian higher education are currently in their infancy but steadily emerging. Developing economy contexts could foster more transparent and explicit reporting practices by introducing soft regulations that clarify the necessity, scope, and specific content requirements of sustainability performance disclosures.
Universities play an essential role in sustainable development, yet their institutional accountability often remains undocumented. Understanding how higher education institutions communicate environmental and social performance highlights gaps in current governance and reporting standards. Establishing structured disclosure mechanisms can help institutions in developing economies align operational transparency with international sustainability expectations and attract development partnerships.
The abstract does not indicate an immediate commercial product or direct commercialisation pathway. However, the identified reporting gaps point to potential advisory, benchmarking, or software applications for university administrators, regulatory bodies, and sustainability consultants seeking to standardise higher education reporting frameworks. Any such operational applications remain at an early concept stage based on exploratory research findings.
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This is an exploratory study that brings to the fore the extent to which universities in Ghana report on their sustainability performance. It explores the issue of whether Ghanaian universities report on their sustainability performance, as well as the dimensions of sustainability they report on. A framework based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and campus sustainability assessment tools was used as the basis for investigating sustainability reporting among the six biggest universities in Ghana. Despite the fact that none of the six universities had stand-alone sustainability reports, they all reported on their university sustainability performance through websites and annual reports, despite not explicitly claiming to be addressing sustainability. It was also noted that there is variable coverage of sustainability issues among the universities investigated. It appears that sustainability reporting in Ghanaian universities, while still in its infancy, is emerging. Universities in developing economy contexts might be encouraged to explicitly address and report sustainability issues through ‘soft’ regulations which address the imperative and content of sustainability reporting.
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DOI: 10.1080/02500167.2015.1024391
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