Defining Sustainability Report Content in NIRDC: Application of BSC and Grey-DEMATEL

During the last two decades, the need for oil companies to be responsible for the significant economic, social, and environmental consequences of their operations has pushed them to clarify their actions through the publishing sustainability reports. However, the complexity of simultaneous attention to the various and sometimes incompatible stakeholder's demands, resource limitations, as well as the necessity to ensure alignment of sustainable actions with organizational strategies has led oil companies confront with ambiguities in setting the content of the sustainability report. Based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, utilization of the balanced scorecard (BSC) and grey-DEMATEL technique, this research attempts to define the key sustainable performance criteria to help release a valid sustainability report by the National Iranian Refining & Distribution Company (NIRDC). According to findings, among the various criteria of the GRI, 22 criteria were more compatible with the content-related principles of this guideline. In addition, the share of environmental criteria of sustainable development was greater than that of the economic and social aspects.