Bence Lukács

58580055500

Publications - 11

Companies’ ESG performance under soft and hard regulation environment

Péter Molnár Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Discover Sustainability

Publication Date: 2025-12-01

Volume: 6

Issue: 1

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The growing integration of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into corporate decision-making and investment strategies has heightened the need for reliable and comparable ESG ratings. However, substantial divergence across rating agencies—driven by inconsistent methodologies, weighting schemes, and disclosure practices—poses challenges for investors, firms, and regulators. Addressing a key gap in the literature, this study investigates how regulatory environments influence ESG rating divergence by comparing hard, soft, and unregulated frameworks across five major economies: the United States, China, Japan, Germany, and India. ESG ratings were collected from Sustainalytics, S&P Global, and Refinitiv for the top 50 publicly listed companies in each country. The divergence was measured using absolute score differences between agencies, and statistical tests and cluster analysis were conducted to evaluate the impact of regulation on rating consistency. The results indicate that countries with strong, mandatory ESG disclosure regimes—such as Germany's CSRD and India’s BRSR—exhibit significantly lower levels of rating divergence, while unregulated markets like the USA and China display the highest discrepancies. Notably, Japan’s soft-law approach achieves alignment levels comparable to those of hard-law environments, emphasizing the role of regulatory enforcement. These findings reinforce both signaling and agency theories by demonstrating how regulatory oversight and transparency reduce information asymmetry and promote stakeholder trust. The study highlights the importance of direct supervision of ESG rating agencies and supports global harmonization of ESG disclosure standards as a means to enhance market efficiency and comparability.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-025-01657-0

ESG disclosure topics and reporting frameworks: exploratory research across automotive, construction, and energy industries

Robert Rickards Árpád Tóth Alex Suta Péter Molnár Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Discover Sustainability

Publication Date: 2025-12-01

Volume: 6

Issue: 1

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting and proper measurement of greenhouse gas emissions are becoming increasingly important for industries with substantial environmental impact. This research aims to assess the current state of ESG reporting practices and highlight areas for improvement across the automotive, construction and energy industries operating in the Central Eastern European (CEE) region. To achieve this aim, a multi-industry sustainability disclosure database was created and analyzed through a Python-based text-mining methodology, using term frequency-inverse document frequency and keyword-in-context analysis. The process involved extracting and preprocessing text from 60 sustainability reports for the year 2021, followed by constructing a custom dictionary of key ESG terms aligned with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. The findings reveal considerable variance in the focus of qualitative disclosures across industries, particularly regarding climate change and biodiversity. The investigation underscores the need for enhanced transparency, consistent metrics, and rigorous validation in ESG reporting. The study also provides new insights into the technical possibilities of automated text analysis for sustainability reporting in the CEE region, and highlights key areas where improvement appears necessary.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-025-01533-x

Developing a Consistent and Transparent Corporate Sustainability Rating System with a Sector-Agnostic Approach

Robert Rickards Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Journal of Sustainability Research

Publication Date: 2025-09-01

Volume: 7

Issue: 3

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Background: Development of objective, quantitative sustainability reporting scores for international companies has to be based on legal, regulatory, and public policy standards as well as focused exclusively on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. The key performance indicators (KPIs) developed here differ from traditional agencies’ rating schemes in that they are equally applicable across industrial sectors. They measure performance in terms of several environmental Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) indicators. The KPIs quantify performance by systematically linking corporate revenues with sustainability metrics, thereby yielding readily comparable, numerical scores. Methods: This report illustrates their utility with data on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from leading companies within the S&P Global ESG ranking for 2023. Results: The findings reveal significant gaps in managing Scope 3 emissions, which dominate the value chain and present the greatest challenge for corporate sustainability. These disparities highlight the need for improved data transparency and harmonized reporting standards to ensure consistent and actionable sustainability assessments. Conclusions: By bridging these gaps, the KPIs enable more equitable comparisons across industries and encourage better alignment of corporate strategies with global climate objectives. The additional transparency and insights in turn afford investors, managers, policy makers, and other stakeholders’ better information for their decision making.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.20900/jsr20250054

Measuring Corporate Compliance with the SDGs Based on the GRI’s ESG Reporting Methodology

Árpád Tóth Péter Molnár Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Journal of Sustainability Research

Publication Date: 2025-01-01

Volume: 7

Issue: 1

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Background: This research examines the efficiency of ESG reporting in corporate contributions toward achieving the SDGs, relative to the literature gaps and sectoral differences in reporting practices. It also highlights that full ESG disclosure is invariably instrumental in ensuring corporate transparency and accountability. Methods: The study used the GRI framework to analyze SDG compliance in sustainability reports from companies in the technology, automotive, energy, and health sectors. Results: Key findings include significant variations in SDG compliance across industries: the automotive sector demonstrated the highest compliance at 85%, while the technology sector showed the lowest at 49%. The study also found a notable difference between reported and substantiated SDGs, indicating that many companies engage in ‘rainbow washing’ or ‘cherry-picking’ SDGs to fit their agendas without fully integrating them into their strategies. The research concludes that although the GRI framework provide. Conclusions: The study urges the combination of other standards, such as ESRS and SASB, together with more intense regulatory frameworks and industry-specific guidelines to increase comparability and the credibility of the reports on sustainability.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.20900/jsr20250010

Towards Predicting Business Activity Classes from European Digital Corporate Reports †

Árpád Tóth Alex Suta Péter Molnár Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Engineering Proceedings

Publication Date: 2024-01-01

Volume: 79

Issue: 1

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

Digital financial reporting enables automated analyses on vast datasets. This study illustrates the benefits of integrating XBRL and machine learning. XBRL, an open-source financial reporting language, was used to create a unified database of over 5600 IFRS-tagged reports. The IFRS taxonomy tags containing textual data on company activities were analyzed using the Zero-Shot Learning algorithm to identify specific activities. This study highlights how digital reporting and machine learning can extract and analyze textual data, offering insights into company activities and demonstrating the potential of these technologies in financial reporting.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/engproc2024079050

Comparative assessment of ESG ratings methodology and results based on XBRL

Robert Rickards Péter Molnár Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Journal of Infrastructure Policy and Development

Publication Date: 2024-01-01

Volume: 8

Issue: 12

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

This study provides a comparative analysis of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings methodologies and explores the potential of eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) to enhance transparency and comparability in ESG reporting. Evaluating ratings from different agencies, the research identifies significant methodological inconsistencies that lead to conflicting information for investors and stakeholders. Statistical tests and adjusted rating scales confirm substantial divergence in ESG scores, primarily due to differing data categories and indicators used by rating firms. Using a sample of 265 European companies, the study demonstrates that individual ESG agencies report markedly different ratings for the same firms, which can mislead stakeholders. It proposes that XBRL based reporting can mitigate these inconsistencies by providing a standardized framework for data collection and reporting. XBRL enables accurate and efficient data collection, reducing human error and enhancing the transparency of ESG reports. The findings advocate for integrating XBRL in ESG reporting to achieve higher levels of comparability and reliability. The study calls for greater regulatory oversight and the adoption of standardized taxonomies in ESG reporting to ensure consistent and comparable data across sectors and jurisdictions. Despite challenges like the lack of a standardized taxonomy and inconsistent adoption, the research contends that XBRL can significantly improve the reliability of ESG ratings. In conclusion, this study suggests that standardizing ESG data through XBRL could provide a viable solution to the unreliability of current ESG rating scales, supporting sustainable business practices and informed decision making by investors.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.24294/jipd.v8i12.8641

Case study-based scenario analysis comparing GHG emissions of wine packaging types

Boglárka Eisingerné Balassa Agnes Csiba-Herczeg Réka Koteczki Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Cleaner Engineering and Technology

Publication Date: 2023-08-01

Volume: 15

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The wine market has faced a serious problem in recent years, as the cost and environmental impact of commonly used wine bottles has become unsustainable for producers. In this paper, we present a case study of one of the largest wineries in Hungary, with the aim of investigating sustainability factors related to packaging materials. The winery has provided us with data on three types of bottles (Burgundy Glass Bottle, Bordeaux Glass Bottle and Bordeaux polyethylene terephthalate (PET) Bottle), for which the greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) related to production and the Co2e related to transport are calculated as part of Life Cycle Analysis (LCA). The maximum transport weight per truck is 23 501.70kg for Bordeaux PET bottle, 19 951.14 kg for Burgundy glass bottle and 22 290.18 kg for a Bordeaux glass bottle. In Hungary, a new law on packaging will come into force, whereby bottles will be subject to a deposit scheme. For this reason, eight scenarios were set up to calculate GHG emission. In the study, two types of raw material were investigated, glass and polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and calculations were made with recycled and reused materials. As a result of the study, the cases with the lowest Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions are those with the highest amounts of recycled and reused packaging materials. Among the scenarios presented, the one with the lowest emissions in terms of production and transport is the case where 70% Bordeaux Recycled Glass Bottle and 30% rPET are used (247 231.697 kgCO2e). This scenario has 64% less GHG emissions than the scenario where only glass is used. In the present study, we performed a cradle-to-gate analysis of wine packaging, which may be worth expanding in future research with additional input and output factors during the product life cycle. The research carried out in this study also lays the foundation for research on consumer behaviour related to alternative wine packaging.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1016/j.clet.2023.100649

Sustainability Aspects of Drone-Assisted Last-Mile Delivery Systems—A Discrete Event Simulation Approach

Boglárka Eisingerné Balassa László Buics Réka Koteczki Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Energies

Publication Date: 2023-06-01

Volume: 16

Issue: 12

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

The goal of this article is to examine the advantages and disadvantages of the application of drones in last-mile delivery systems from a sustainability point of view regarding CO2 emissions and energy consumption. As commercial drones are developing rapidly, the application of such tools in the field of last-mile delivery and transportation can offer many opportunities to increase service flexibility, reduce delivery time and decrease CO2 emissions and energy consumption. In this article, a discrete event simulation is applied to examine how the assistance of drones in parcel delivery services can influence the sustainability aspects of such services regarding CO2 emissions and energy consumption in an urban environment. Based on factory parameters, a vehicle-based delivery scenario is compared to a drone-assisted scenario under ideal conditions. According to the results, within the simulation parameters with the assistance of drones, a decrease in CO2 emissions and energy consumption is possible in last-mile delivery services, but more environmental, technological and financial limitations should also be addressed and incorporated to determine whether such a development is worthwhile from a last-mile delivery company’s point of view.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3390/en16124656

Overview of XBRL Taxonomy Usage for Structured Sustainability Reporting in European Filings

Árpád Tóth Alex Suta Péter Molnár Bence Lukács Loránd Kedves Orsolya Pintes

Publication Name: Chemical Engineering Transactions

Publication Date: 2023-01-01

Volume: 107

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 577-582

Description:

The increasing requirement for businesses to disclose sustainability information digitally has prompted significant changes in the content and format of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosures. However, companies mandated to adapt to these changes face technological and information challenges regarding ‘what’ and ‘how’ to report. For European filers, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and its requirements, the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), along with the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS S1 and S2), propose the use of the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) as the anticipated technical solution for the digital data structure. The objective of this paper is to provide a methodological framework for effectively navigating the complex and interrelated concepts relevant to stakeholders. Rather than relying on cumbersome textual guides, this framework leverages an examination of existing taxonomies to offer readers insights into the essential glossary of disclosures and metrics considered crucial by official regulatory sources. Furthermore, the research discusses the emphasis on qualitative and narrative disclosures in ESG reporting and their feasibility of comparable results. Employing this methodology facilitates the implementation of corporate case studies and enables the analysis of mass amounts of future annual reports for comprehensive sustainability performance measurement.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3303/CET23107097

How the Categorisation of SDG Targets into ESG Pillars can Inform the Corporate SDG Report

Robert Rickards Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Chemical Engineering Transactions

Publication Date: 2023-01-01

Volume: 107

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: 193-198

Description:

In this research, SDG standards are mapped to the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) pillars through Triple-Bottom Line (TBL) groupings based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines and accounting items, which allow SDG standards to be harmonised with the ESG pillars. Two methodologies developed in the literature for classifying SDG standards into TBL groupings were also used to create a ranking scheme. This scheme can help companies determine which SDG standards are most important for their sustainability reporting. Companies report on the steps they have taken towards sustainability and the sustainability aspects of their operations in their ESG sustainability reports. In many cases, their reporting includes information on SDGs, which, like ESG reporting, does not have a standard disclosure methodology, so announcements are made with different information, in different formats, by different companies. To make SDG reporting more consistent, harmonisation with existing ESG reporting methodologies could be identified as a forward step in this field because it would help to produce more informed, consistent SDG reporting. In addition to integrating SDGs into ESG reporting methodologies, SDGs also could be integrated into ESG scoring methodologies, which would be more relevant to stakeholders and the stock market. The paper will review ESG reporting and scoring methodologies, with a particular focus on which methodology is most appropriate for harmonisation. By defining the integration methodology, the study contributes to the public policy discussion about sustainable reporting.

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.3303/CET23107033

Linking sustainability reporting and energy use through global reporting initiative standards and sustainable development goals

Árpád Tóth Alex Suta Péter Molnár Bence Lukács

Publication Name: Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy

Publication Date: 2024-01-01

Volume: Unknown

Issue: Unknown

Page Range: Unknown

Description:

This paper addresses the critical need for an integrated approach to sustainability reporting by examining the transition from internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles within the automotive industry. By focusing on the top 8 highest-revenue global automakers in 2022, the study utilizes the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and United Nations Sustainable Development Goals to assess contributions to SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy) and other pertinent indicators. A comprehensive content analysis and logistic regression analysis are employed to explore the correlation between energy use and compliance with GRI standards from 2018 to 2022. The findings reveal significant trends in sustainability reporting, with a noted decrease in quality in the final year analyzed. Specifically, GRI 302-3 (energy intensity) shows a significant negative relationship with energy consumption, indicating higher energy usage correlates with lower compliance. The study reinforces the necessity for more transparent and effective sustainability reporting frameworks to enhance corporate practices and drive progress toward sustainability goals. Graphical abstract: (Figure presented.)

Open Access: Yes

DOI: 10.1007/s10098-024-03044-1