Influence of polluting potential and history of environmental violations in Corporate Environmental Evidence

Abstract

The aim of this article is to explain the influence of sectors of high polluting potential and with a history of environmental infractions in corporate environmental evidence. To this end, the Financial Statements and Sustainability Reports for the period 2017 to 2019 of the publicly held companies listed in the Brazil Broad-Based Index (IBrA) were examined. From the content analysis of 225 Sustainability Reports published by 78 companies and based on the conceptual structure of Rover et al. (2012), it was possible to identify that most of the environmental information disclosed in the reports refers to information on environmental policy, impacts of products and processes on the environment and environmental financial information. On average, 68.2% of the companies released a Sustainability Report in the period, of which 92% adopted some international methodology in its preparation. The mean level of environmental evidence was 29.03% in 2017; 30.26% in 2018 and 30.41% in 2019 and the basic materials and oil, gas and biofuel sectors showed higher mean levels of environmental evidence. The regression model with panel data with random effects showed that the variables size, sector and history of infractions positively influenced environmental evidence at a significance level of 1% and that the variables indebtedness, profitability, audit and board size did not have significant influence. The two research hypotheses were not refuted, indicating that companies in sectors with high polluting potential (H1) and with a history of environmental violations (H2) have higher levels of environmental disclosure. These findings are consistent with the Legitimacy Theory and the Voluntary Disclosure Theory.