The history of CSR reporting is very much tied to the development of CSR standards and is listed as
| Year | Event |
| 1976 | The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) releases the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises as a set of voluntary standards and principles for responsible business. |
| 1977 | The Sullivan Principles are created to help U.S. companies apply economic pressure on South Africa to end apartheid. |
| 1977 | The French government requires disclosure of labor and employment-related information for companies with more than 300 employees. |
| 1984 | An explosion/gas leak at a Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal, India kills more than 3,000 people in the surrounding community. |
| 1989 | The Exxon Valdez crashes into Bligh Reef off the coast of Alaska, spilling close to 11 million gallons of oil into Prince William Sound. |
| 1990s | Royal Dutch Shell’s operations in the Niger Delta lead to conflict between the Nigerian government and local communities and allegations of human rights abuses. |
| 1990s | A series of labor abuses are revealed in the Nike supply chain, including child labor (Cambodia and Pakistan), hazardous working conditions (China and Vietnam), and poor wages (Indonesia). |
| 1997 | The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is formed by Ceres and the Tellus Institute, two Boston-based nonprofit organizations. The GRI releases its Sustainability Reporting Guidelines in 2000. |
| 2000 | The United Nations Global Compact (GC) is launched by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. |
| 2000 | The Carbon Disclosure Project is created to encourage companies to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions. |
| 2001 | The Enron scandal reveals widespread accounting fraud; thousands of employees lose their jobs and pensions as the company files for bankruptcy. |
| 2001 | The French government mandates CSR reporting for all listed companies through the New Economic Regulations (NRE) Act. |
| 2003 | AccountAbility releases its AA1000 Assurance Standard. |
| 2004 | The Johannesburg Stock Exchange creates its first Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Index. |
| 2006 | The International Finance Corporation (IFC) begins using its Policy and Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Sustainability for all project financing. |
| 2008 | Sweden and Denmark announce legislation to mandate CSR reporting. |
| 2010 | An explosion at BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig spills more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. |
| 2010 | The GRI and GC sign a Memorandum of Understanding in which the two initiatives agree to align their efforts to promote CSR. |
| 2010 | The International Organization for Standardization releases its first CSR standard, ISO 26000. |
