Abstract
Organisations have been disclosing environmental and social information through different tools, including their websites. However, the type of environmental and social information that organisations disclose online, and what are the characteristics of those organisations is still not fully understood. This research aims to (a) identify which environmental and social information organisations disclose online; and (ii) explore drivers of the specific information disclosed. We collected data on sustainability disclosures from 2008 Italian organisations. Results show that overall the amount of environmental and social information disclosed online is low. However, organisational characteristics explain different contents of disclosure. Bigger organisations (in terms of revenues and number of employees), and with environmental and social certifications in place tend to disclose more environmental and social information. Also, consumer goods’ organisations disclose mostly information related to the supply chain; whilst resource-intensive industries disclose mostly information on corporate social responsibility. This research shows that overall there is still a reserved attitude towards disclosing environmental and social information in Italian organisations, providing little information to stakeholders about environmental and social policies, strategies and practices. This study provides researchers and practitioners information on the content of sustainability information disclosed and possible drivers for their disclosure; this supports their understanding of the conditions where voluntary sustainability disclosure is more expected.
Highlights
Organisations have been reporting their environmental and social performance through different tools, such as social and environmental reports and sustainability reports
Our research develops new metrics to assess sustainability information disclosed online by organisations (Section 2.3.1); it provides data on the metrics identified in Section 2.3.1 that is disclosed online by 2008 organisations from twelve industrial groups in Italy (Section 3.1); and explores the association between organisational characteristics and the information identified in Section 3.1 (Section 3.2)
This is significant to stakeholder groups who may have online information as the only interface with the organisation
Summary
Organisations have been reporting their environmental and social performance through different tools, such as social and environmental reports and sustainability reports. Despite the emergence of new regulations, namely at the European level [4], the decision to disclose, how to disclose, and the type of sustainability-related aspects to be disclosed are still mainly a voluntary practice, especially for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). These organisations are considered to have potentially less significant impacts than larger organisations and are out of the scope of the emergent regulation on disclosure of sustainability information
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