Critical points regarding verifiability in Brazilian companies' sustainability reports: a fuzzy TOPSIS class perspective

Purpose This article aims to critically assess expert perceptions of the adoption of Brazilian companies regarding the verifiability aspect in sustainability reporting. Design/methodology/approach Thirteen subject matter experts provided evaluations of each of the 7 recommendations proposed by Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards, considering three distinct criteria: (1) managers' knowledge preparedness to implement each recommendation; (2) managers' actual capability to follow each recommendation and (3) the perceived importance of each recommendation for enabling society to demand increased corporate participation in sustainable development. The collected data were analyzed using the fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) Class method. Findings The expert-based assessment indicated that all seven GRI-based verifiability recommendations fall within the “regular” category. While this result implies no critically unacceptable points, it nevertheless highlights concerns regarding the capacity of Brazilian companies to produce highly mature sustainability reports and to present information whose quality can be genuinely verified by society. Originality/value This research contributes uniquely by employing the fuzzy TOPSIS Class method to systematically evaluate critical points affecting verifiability in sustainability reporting, providing novel insights into the maturity level of Brazilian companies' sustainability disclosures.