Zhanna Oleksich

This paper is devoted to the investigation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure regulation process and its possible connection with countries’ competitiveness as an integral part of countries’ Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility (CSER) poliсy. ESG disclosure regulation criteria were examined according to their classification on Pension Fund Regulation, Stewardship Code, Government Corporate ESG disclosure, and Non-Government Corporate ESG disclosure by UNPRI in 2016 and for developed countries and developing and emerging countries separately. In order to find the relationship between ESG disclosure and the countries’ competitiveness (describing by Global Competitiveness Index), variety of statistical tests was applied (Student’s t-tests, ANOVA analysis, Mann-Whitney tests, simple average analysis and regression analysis with dummy variables). Research hypotheses about statistically significant differences in ESG disclosure regulation between developed countries and developing and emerging countries and the influence of ESG disclosure regulation on the overall competitiveness of the country were proved. ESG disclosure regulation became an effective instrument of countries CSER policy and tools for increasing their competitiveness.

The most vital problems of humanity mentioned in SDGs are the consequences of climate change and biodiversity loss and problems with access to water and forest resources. Although there is a deep understanding of the problems, there are reasons that do not allow finding swift solutions, and the increasing funding gap for the relevant SDGs is one of them. This study aims to establish the connection between environmental protection investments and the achievement of environmentally oriented sustainable development goals across 31 European countries (26 EU Member States, 3 EFTA Countries, and Ukraine as a Candidate to EU). The paper employed the PLS-SEM approach. The obtained results proved that the accumulated amount of environmental protection investments does not have a statistically significant relationship with the integral indicators of SDG 6 “Clear water and sanitation,” SDG 13 “Climate action,” and SDG 15 “Life on land” (the coefficient of determination, the path coefficient, and the reliability coefficients were insignificant). The study of a similar relationship between the level and the directions of SDGs 6, 13, and 15 achievements also did not reveal any significant results. As the last step of the analysis, the hypothesis about a relationship between environmental protection investments and Environmental Performance Index components was also rejected. Therefore, the statistical significance and relevance of the analyzed indicators were not confirmed. Based on this, a conclusion was made about the insufficiency of investment resources for environmental protection to overcome the gap in achieving environmentally-oriented SDGs.

The disclosure of information on sustainability by energy companies is a guarantee of increasing their competitiveness in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 7 and the post-war recovery of the Ukrainian energy sector. This paper aims to evaluate the sustainability transparency reporting of energy companies in Ukraine and connect the level of such transparency and their competitiveness. The study used the Transparency Index to analyze information disclosure on sustainability by 50 energy companies in Ukraine, the largest taxpayers. It is based on SDG, CSR, and ESG criteria and shows the companies’ ratings. It was found that companies with a low disclosure of SDG, CSR, and ESG criteria have the largest specific weight (76%) among the respondents. The undisputed leader in sustainability transparency is Energoatom, while only 11 companies out of 50 surveyed have an A and B rating (the highest and higher level of transparency). The index was used as a factor variable in the non-parametric modeling of the relationship between the sustainability transparency of energy companies in Ukraine and their competitiveness (company return, profitability, and profit margin of taxes paid). A close, statistically significant, and inverse relationship was revealed between the Sustainability Transparency Index of energy companies and indicators illustrating their competitiveness besides profitability. The results of rating and clustering companies according to SDG, CSR, and ESG criteria can be used to improve their positive and negative investment screening procedures and increase their competitiveness on the way to SDG 7.

Acknowledgment
Inna Makarenko gratefully acknowledges support from the Supreme Council of Ukraine (0122U201796).

An integrated approach to the enterprise value-based management (VBM) provides a precise assessment of all accounting entities. The implementation of such an approach allows determining the value of objects that do not have a material form (intangible assets), but have a significant impact on the enterprise value. The growing role of accounting data in enterprise value formation and management determines the necessity of the research. Thus, the article aims to investigate the effect of integrated reporting implementation on the VBM at the Ukrainian enterprises. Based on recent scientific researches, the study substantiates that the VBM approach should be based on an integrated reporting concept and proves the necessity of transition from the traditional accounting model to sustainability accounting in Ukraine. The findings reveal the approach of integrated reporting incorporation into the enterprise VBM system. The authors offer the concept of creating an integrated reporting model in Ukraine that considers economic and legal criteria, basic and qualitative principles, and production, human, financial, social, natural, and intellectual capital.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have become a universal call to action over the past few years and a basis for assessing the progress of sustainable development of countries and organizations. This paper aims to identify the relationship between the sustainable development activities of universities in different regions of the world, as reflected in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings (THE IR), and the progress towards achieving SDGs of the countries in which these universities operate. The research methods were correlation analysis and robust regression tools, and parametric and non-parametric methods of variance analysis. The information base was the results of annual reports based on the THE IR and Sustainable Development Reports for 2017–2021. The results confirm the existence of directly proportional close correlations between the variables, while the regression analysis confirmed that a one-unit increase in the overall THE IR ranking score leads to a corresponding increase in the overall progress of countries in achieving SDGs (on average by 0.2-0.3 units) and SDGs 3, 8, 11, 16 in particular. It was also found that universities play a key role in achieving different SDGs in various regions. In Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and North Africa, universities are critical for SDG 17 achieving. In OECD countries, universities contribute most to SDG 3. Examples of the best practices that can be used as a guide for university administrations that are at the beginning of developing sustainable development policies are also given.

Funding
Inna Makarenko gratefully acknowledges support from the Jean Monet module project “Transparency. Accountability. Responsibility. Governance. Europe. Trust. Sustainability” financed by the Erasmus+ program (101085395 – TARGETS – ERASMUS-JMO-2022-HEI-TCH-RSCH).

The article analyzes the role of universities, assessed through the prism of the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings (UI GreenMetric) methodology, in ensuring energy efficiency and sustainability of the national economy. For this purpose, UI GreenMetric results, systematized by country and region, were used, as well as data for 2017–2022 on countries’ progress in achieving SDG 7 and the national level of primary energy intensity. The analysis of trends in the development of sustainable universities according to UI GreenMetric shows regional differences: on average, the highest scores in the ranking are given to universities in OECD countries and East and South Asia, and the lowest – to Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe & Central Asia. A positive correlation (from 13.9% to 18.7% of the variation) was found between the activities of universities and the countries’ progress in achieving SDG 7, as well as a negative correlation with the energy intensity of the level of primary energy of these countries; this proves the participation of higher education institutions in ensuring the energy efficiency of national economies (the level of influence is much lower, the explanation of model variations is 2.4%-8.2%). The role of universities is not only to develop green campuses but also to increase research, create new educational programs, develop cross-sectoral cooperation and ‘living laboratories’ to implement sustainable development practices, and train future leaders capable of overcoming global energy challenges.