The 100 plus corporate environmental report study: A survey of an evolving environmental management tool

Abstract

An emerging environmental management tool is the corporate environmental report, a free-standing document, analogous to the corporate annual report, but which covers environmental and often health and safety issues. This study examines the nature of the corporate environmental reports of large, public, US companies to determine which companies produce reports, what type of information is reported, how this information is presented, and who might be the audiences for this information. This study also seeks to identify state of the art practice in corporate environmental reports, drawing on the US reports and leading environmental reports from Europe and Canada. Over 100 US companies now publish corporate environmental reports. These companies are primarily from the manufacturing sector, although they are increasingly part of the service sector. Report issuers identified employees and shareholders as their primary audiences. Both overall report organization and composition as well as report distribution, including the use of the Internet for environmental reporting, were examined. Topics which reflect leading edge environmental practice are identified and examples from reports are given. These topics include integrating business and environmental performance, environmental policy, goals and measurement, management and organizational structure, environmental and resource data presentation, third-party verification, disclosure of negative information, and sustainability. The paper discusses trends in reporting and makes recommendations to improve reports.© 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.