The Use of Visuals in Sustainability Reporting
Type
conference contribution
Date Issued
2026
Author(s)
Abstract
This paper documents a functional separation between graphics and photographs in sustainability reporting. Using deep-learning-based visual and textual analyses of 3,923 European reports from 2013 to 2021, we show that firms' use, placement, and congruence of visuals vary systematically with sustainability performance and the surrounding narrative. At the report level, firms with stronger sustainability performance are more likely to use graphics, but not photographs. At the micro level, sections with a stronger sustainability focus contain more graphical elements but fewer photographs, and photographs in these sections are less congruent with their surrounding narratives and use more green colors and salient designs. These patterns are amplified among poor ESG performers, suggesting that photographs play a more aesthetic, impression-related role, whereas graphics serve a primarily content-oriented communicative function. Consequences tests show that graphics, particularly when congruent, are associated with fewer future ESG incidents and higher subsequent ESG ratings, whereas photographs exhibit weaker or opposite associations. Across outcomes, particularly photographs are more likely to be strategically positioned in sustainability-dense disclosure passages that contain decision-relevant information, highlighting the informative relevance of multimodal sustainability reporting.
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Event Title
10th Workshop on Accounting and Regulation
Event Location
Siena/Florenz
Event Date
June 25- 27, 2026
Subject(s)
Division(s)