The impact of international sustainability initiatives on Life Cycle Assessment voluntary disclosures: The case of France’s CAC40 listed companies

Abstract

Based on an institutional approach to legitimacy theory, this paper aims to study the individual and cumulative influence of three international sustainability initiatives on the decision to disclose information on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and on the quantity of information disclosed. A total sample of 433 firm-year observations was collected from the content analysis of registration documents and sustainability standalone reports published by 36 companies listed on the French CAC40 index over a longitudinal period of 13 years. Results show that the adoption of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability guidelines, of the United Nations Global Compact (GC) principles, and of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) are positively and significantly associated with the tendency of CAC40 companies to disclose LCA information. In addition, the GRI is the only initiative significantly associated with the quantity of LCA information disclosed. Moreover, the results reveal a positive and significant relationship between the cumulative number of initiatives adopted and both the decision to disclose and the quantity of LCA information disclosed. Finally, in comparison to the GRI, the GC and the CDP do not encourage companies to disclose much information on LCA. The contributions of this study are manifold. It provides evidence that voluntary environmental frameworks can excert different normative pressures towards environmental reporting and suggests that companies decide to disclose LCA information to emphasize their superior environmental performance and to manage their legitimacy. It contributes to a more nuanced understanding of environmental disclosure by making a distinction between the decision to disclose and the quantity of information disclosed. From a managerial perspective, this paper demonstrates the usefulness of having multiple initiatives promoting sustainability, since their combined use leads to an increase in disclosure. Moreover, the results are likely to encourage international initiatives, particularly the GRI, to pay greater attention to LCA.