A Method-Derived Framework for Evidence-Based Sustainability Reporting Education: Environmental Materiality, ESG Literacy and Colombian Manufacturing

This study examines how corporate sustainability reports and official environmental statistics can be combined analytically to support a conceptual framework for sustainability education, ESG literacy, environmental accounting, and professional training in business, management, and engineering programs. Focusing on Colombian manufacturing, the study triangulates GRI-coded corporate disclosures with sector-level indicators on waste generation, water use, and environmental investment. The findings identify strong structural alignment for water-related disclosure, partial alignment for waste and emissions themes, and recurrent emphasis on governance and social topics that are weakly connected to the selected environmental-pressure indicators. On the basis of this analytical sequence, the article proposes a method-derived pedagogical framework for critically comparing sustainability narratives with external evidence. The framework was not tested as an educational intervention: no students, instructors, courses, comparison conditions, or learning outcomes were evaluated. Accordingly, the educational contribution should be interpreted as a conceptually grounded application of the research method rather than evidence of demonstrated teaching effectiveness. Received: 28 April 2026 / Accepted: 11 September 2026 / Published: November 2026