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es, France was the first country to make it mandatory for listed companies to account for the social and environmental consequences of their activities. When the French Council of State later fixed by decree the information that the business report should contain regarding social responsibility, the legislative arm gave themselves the means to oblige these listed companies to be transparent in their activities. More obligations followed on from this decree in the social and environmental areas: numbers hired, types of contract, information on staff cutback plans, organization and length of the working week, pay scales, health and safety conditions, labour relations and reports on collective agreements, training policy, employment and professional integration of the disabled, community work, these were the main social areas where companies had to account for their actions. With regard to environmental areas, they had to be in a position to notify their consumption of resources and any measures taken to improve energy efficiency such as nuisance control and waste treatment.

In France, the Loi sur les nouvelles régulations économiques (New Economic Regulations Act) of May 2001 added a new Article L 225-102-1 to the Commercial Code, making it mandatory for the board of directors or executive board of listed companies to present a yearly report to shareholders 'on the manner in which the company takes account of the social and environmental consequences of its activities'. Thus, starting with the financial year ending 31 December 2002, all listed companies in France must prepare annual reports, taking account of the three aspects of sustainable development: economics, the environment and social affairs. [17]

Since 2001, French listed companies had to report on a rather comprehensive and precise framework of environmental, social and governance indicators. It sparked the extra-financial reporting trend in France. Actual efforts have progressively been made over the last decade by French listed companies, especially the largest ones. However, to fill the reporting gap between listed and non-listed companies, the legislative framework had to be reviewed. [18]

Consequently, during the 'Grenelle de l'Environnement', a large multi-stakeholder forum on sustainability issues and public policies supporting CSR for France, an agreement has been reached to broaden this reporting process and make it more reliable. After tough and long discussions between civil society and business representatives, a bill has been passed and has been transposed into the French Commercial Code, in July 2010. It took 2 years of negotiations and the publication of the decree precising the information to be reported (in May 2012) to actually implement the Act. It enacted that all companies, private and public, exceeding more than 500 employees, have to report on the social and environmental consequences of its activities. This extra-financial information will have to be embedded in the annual management report, approved by the Board of Directors, verified by a third-party body and given to the annual general meeting. The mandatory information concerns the whole financial scope of the firm.

Yet this Act aims at forcing companies to progress in reporting their environmental and social information: there is no sanction (such as fines), requirements are on a 'comply or explain' basis and the implementation is progres