A Proposal for Streamlining the Sustainability Report of an SME Textile Company

Given the increasing concerns with sustainable development, this paper proposes a practical framework to streamline the process of sustainability reporting of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), based on the updated Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) of 2021. The proposed framework consists of a simplified step-by-step guide composed of ten steps divided into two stages. The development of the step-by-step guide followed four phases which included identifying the main stakeholders, understanding the business, analyzing GRI 2021 guidelines, and preparing the company's sustainability report. The proposed framework allows an SME to inform its stakeholders about its economic, social, and environmental impact performance, following the guidelines of the GRI Standards 2021. The use of this framework is illustrated in the case of a Portuguese SME textile company.