Corporate Environmental Reporting Research Articles

Trust in ESG reporting: The intelligent Veri-Green solution for incentivized verification

In today's corporate environment, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reports crucially reflect an organization's commitment to sustainability, environmental preservation, and social responsibility. As corporations share these detailed reports, the responsibility to validate and assure adherence to respected ESG benchmarks critically lies with third-party assurance organizations. However, the essential verification process often encounters challenges related to authenticity, credibility, and fairness, underscoring the need for a new solution. The selection of verifiers is a crucial aspect of this process, as their expertise and impartiality directly impact the validity and trustworthiness of the verification. Consequently, “Veri-Green,” an innovative blockchain-based incentive mechanism, has been introduced to improve the ESG data verification process. Considering potential risks in verification systems, such as reputational damage due to oversight or inadvertent approval of inaccurate data, and data security risks involving the management of sensitive organizational information, the verifier selection process needs to be thoroughly considered and designed. Through the utilization of advanced machine learning algorithms, potential verification candidates are precisely identified, followed by the deployment of the Vickrey Clarke Groves (VCG) auction mechanism. This approach ensures the strategic selection of verifiers and cultivates an ecosystem marked by truthfulness, rationality, and computational efficiency throughout the ESG data verification process. In this framework, verifiers are not only encouraged but also properly incentivized, developing a more transparent and equitable verification process, thereby driving the ESG agenda towards a future defined by genuine, impactful corporate responsibility and sustainability.

Corporate Transparency and Environmental Reporting: Trends and Benefits

Corporate Transparency and Environmental Reporting: Trends and Benefits

Factors Affecting Corporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Reporting: A Literature Review

This study aims to further explore the factors that influence corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting in public listed companies (PLCs) around the world. The information was gathered from prior studies, which were conducted globally. The results are in line with the legitimacy theory, which holds that companies should disclose more ESG information in order to justify their continued existence. Discussion and findings in this study are significant to businesses and stakeholders, as well as policymakers. While businesses may think of ways to improve ESG reporting in order to compete on the global stage, stakeholders may put pressure on businesses to reveal more information about ESG, and also on policymakers to create an egalitarian framework on ESG that is suitable for businesses in their respective regions. The findings suggest that several factors have played a crucial role in influencing PLCs to disclose ESG reporting in their annual reports. The factors include company size, profitability, board of directors’ attributes, economic sustainability performance (ESP), financial leverage, audit committee external members, and the existence of a female director (or directors) on the corporate board. Most prior studies have found that these determinants have positive relationships with the tendency of PLCs to include ESG aspects in their annual report.

New officials, fresh outlooks on policy uncertainty: Leadership turnover in environmental protection bureaus and additional corporate environmental reporting

Whereas prior research has explored the corporate environmental reporting (CER) effects of policy uncertainty caused by political turnover, little attention has been paid to the impact of environmental protection bureaus (EPBs). The recent top-down environmental management institutional reform has substantially enhanced the discretion and authority of EPBs and led to EPB heads exerting increasing effects on environmental enforcement in Chinese localities. Enlightened by this institutional change, in this research we investigate the degree to which policy uncertainty caused by leadership turnover in EPBs changes the level of CER. The results show that the turnover of an EPB head has increasingly caused additional CER activity and that this impact is more pronounced in politically embedded firms and in those whose affiliated cities are under intense environmental pressure. Further analyses reveal that corporations exhibit better CER performance if former EPB heads are promoted to superior political levels or if newly appointed EPB heads have not been promoted locally. The findings suggest that environmental management reform has led CER practices in China to be increasingly related to local EPBs, and the turnover of EPB heads could have strong policy implications, which sheds new light on the conventional policy uncertainty hypothesis.

The Influence of Managerial Ownership and Firm Size on Corporate Environmental Disclosure

Companies in the primary and chemical industry sector are involved in producing chemical substances. These industries process raw materials obtained through mining, agriculture, and other sources into materials, chemical substances, and chemical compounds to become final and intermediate products used in different industries. This study aims to investigate and prove the effect of managerial ownership and firm size on corporate environmental disclosure. The ratio used in this study is the percentage of managerial shares, total company assets, and corporate environmental disclosure reports. This is quantitative research with the type of ex-post facto (cause and effect) research. The population of this study is a manufacturing company in the primary and chemical industry sector listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The sample was selected using a purposive sampling method to obtain ten samples of primary and chemical industry companies from 2017 to 2021. The data analysis method used in this study was Eviews 12 software. The results of the model estimation test show that the selected model, the Random Effect Model (REM), becomes a regression analysis method. This study indicates that partially managerial ownership does not significantly affect environmental disclosure. Moreover, firm size gives positive findings and significantly affects corporate environmental disclosures. The R-Square value of this study is only 3.8% because the results of the F test state that managerial ownership and simultaneous firm size do not significantly affect corporate environmental disclosures.

Corporate Environmental Reporting for Achieving Environmental Sustainability: Evidence from Real-estate, Engineering, and Automobiles Industry

This study intends to investigate the companies’ environmental reporting disclosure practices. To achieve the research aim, we have developed ‘Environmental Risk Reporting Practices Index for Engineering Industry (ERRPIEI) which includes environmental, energy, waste, water, biodiversity, and supply chain management and design. Additionally, the ‘Environmental Risk Reporting Practices Index for Services and Real Estate (ERRPISE)’ has been developed by authors that include strategy and governance toward environmental sustainability, reduction, and optimization initiatives, communicating and joining the collective effort, different metrics, and environmental sustainability reporting. Simultaneously, these two indexes are made up of 114 index items. Data is accumulated from 46 companies operating in two different sectors namely engineering (automobile), services, and real estate for the year 2021-2022 from Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), Bangladesh. The study revealed that the overall scoring of index items is very petite, with companies providing very insufficient and inappropriate non-financial information, most of the companies scored zero in all our disclosure items. Furthermore, the services, and real estate industry is disclosing more index items on environmental issues than the engineering industry. This study will contribute to the standing literature on highlighting corporate environmental reporting aspects of annual reports as well as providing some insights on the environmental reporting and disclosures to the concerned policy-makers for taking efforts and initiatives for adapting to climate change and securing sustainable development which leads to achieving overall environmental sustainability.

Critical Perspectives of NGOs on Voluntary Corporate Environmental Reporting: Thai Public Listed Companies

This study examines the nature of environmental disclosures of Thai public listed companies (PLCs) which operate in environmentally sensitive industries and the factors affecting environmental disclosures as well as the need for a critical perspective from Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) on corporate environmental reporting. A semi-structured interview approach was used for 19 interviews to attain critical perspectives of NGOs on environmental reporting. Thematic analysis through the lens of legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory is undertaken to identify themes and patterns that emerged from the study. Findings of this study reveal that the lack of quantity and quality when it comes to corporate environmental reports are serious issues, thus activating civil society’s criticism. Quality issues are dominant for the lack of reliance on voluntary environmental reporting by NGOs. The government’s monitoring and regulatory compliance systems is key, which has been highlighted as another factor. NGOs prefer government information over environmental information reported by companies. There is strong support for third-party verification and assurance to make the reports more reliable and useful. This study adds to the environmental disclosures and reporting literature by providing insights into civil society perspectives on corporate environmental reporting in the context of a developing country—Thailand. It sheds light on how companies can improve their stakeholder management and engagement strategy. It provides recommendations which may be used to inform relevant policy makers in improving Thai disclosure regulation and compliance mechanisms to promote greater monitoring and accountability. It also suggests companies further explore and examine potential technologies to support their reporting.

Environmental Management Accounting: Assist in Quantifying Corporate Environmental Information Disclosure

Environmental problem is a global issue which needs attention all over the world. India being a developing country where industrialization plays a prominent role in development of economy and at the same time causing environmental pollution, encouragescountry to move towards environmentally sustained economicgrowth. This made the business entity to adopting eco-friendly business behavior and such information should be disclosed accurately to the stakeholders. In India, Corporate Environmental Disclosure is a recent development andreports disclosed by the corporate are more of qualitative in nature which provides limited information of corporate environmental initiatives. In regarding to this matter, the study aims toexamine the issues related tocorporate environmental discloser by going through existing literatureand explore the concept of Environmental Management Accounting practices and techniques with rational of quantifying environmental information in the Corporate Environmental Reports. Environmental Management Accounting as a set of techniques to identify and allocate business environmental cost andexplaining the material effect ofsuch cost on thefinancial performance is viewed as an important practice that support disclosure of accurate, measurable and reliable corporate environmental aspects to the stakeholders because the credibility of the company depends uponthe quality of corporate environmental disclosure in present world, which emphasis more on sustained economic development.

The effect of ownership structure on social and environmental reporting in Nigeria: the moderating role of intellectual capital disclosure

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effect of ownership structure variables on social and environmental disclosure practice in Nigeria. The paper also investigates the moderating impact of intellectual capital disclosure on the relationship between ownership structure elements, social and environmental disclosure. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopted the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) disclosure framework to extract social and environmental disclosure information from corporate social and environmental reports of 80 companies listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The study spanned from 2012–2017. Management ownership, foreign ownership, block ownership and dispersed ownership are considered as determinants of social and environmental disclosure. A multiple regression analysis was used to test the relationships specified in the study. Findings The result of the descriptive analysis has shown evidence of a low-level disclosure of social and environmental information in corporate reports (annual reports and corporate social and environmental reports) of companies. From the regression analysis, block ownership, foreign ownership and dispersed ownership are found to enhance the disclosure of social and environmental information in the corporate report of companies. However, management ownership was found to be insignificantly related to social and environmental disclosure. The result also revealed that intellectual capital disclosure has a significant positive effect on the relationship between management ownership, foreign ownership and dispersed ownership, social and environmental disclosure. However, intellectual capital disclosure does not moderate the relationship between block ownership, social and environmental disclosure. Originality/value This paper is the first to empirically examine the moderating effect of intellectual capital disclosure on ownership structure variables, social and environmental disclosure. The result of the study offer researchers a better understanding of the impact of ownership structure variables on social and environmental disclosure. The findings are useful to researchers, corporate managers, policymakers and regulatory bodies.

Motivational Factors of Implementing Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting and Its Impact on Performance

Motivational Factors of Implementing Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting and Its Impact on Performance

Corporate Environmental Reporting: A Panacea to Job Creation

Corporate Environmental Reporting: A Panacea to Job Creation

The influence of the Chinese government's political ideology in the field of corporate environmental reporting

PurposeIn a state capitalist country such as China, an important influence on company reporting is the government, which can influence company decision-making. The nature and impact of how the Chinese government uses its symbolic power to promote corporate environmental reporting (CER) have been under-studied, and therefore, this paper aims to address this gap in the literature by investigating the various strategies the Chinese government uses to influence CER and how political ideology plays a key role.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses discourse analysis to examine the annual reports and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports from seven Chinese companies between 2007 and 2011. And the data analysis presented is informed by Bourdieu's conceptualisation of symbolic power.FindingsThe Chinese government, through exercising the symbolic power, manages to build consensus, so that the Chinese government's political ideology becomes the habitus which is deeply embedded in the companies' perception of practices. In China, the government dominates the field and owns the economic capital. In order to accumulate symbolic capital, companies must adhere to political ideology, which helps them maintain and improve their social position and ultimately reward them with more economic capital. The findings show that the CER provided by Chinese companies is a symbolic product of this process.Originality/valueThe paper provides contributions around the themes of symbolic power wielded by the government that influence not only state-owned enterprises (SOEs) but also firms in the private sector. This paper also provides an important contribution to understanding, in the context of a strong ideologically based political system (such as China), how political ideology influences companies' decision-making in the field of CER.

Do state subsidies increase corporate environmental spending?

This study investigates the impact of state subsidies on corporate environmental spending of Chinese listed firms between 2011 and 2018, using a hand-collected data from corporate annual and environmental responsibility reports. We find a positive relationship between state subsidies and corporate environment spending, indicating firms receiving government subsidies are more likely to behave more environmentally responsible. In addition, the positive relationships are more pronounced among the non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs) and the firms experiencing financial constraints. It is because, non-SOEs are more likely to lose government support comparing to their SOE peers, thus making more efforts to address corporate pollution. Moreover, firms subject to financial difficulties tend to build an environmental responsible image and to contribute more in environment protection.

A Review on Corporate Environmental Reporting (CER): An Emerging Issue in the Corporate World

Corporate environmental reporting has been treated as a vital issue in today’s corporate world. The current scenario and prospect give an indication that it is going to capture a long-lasting position in the bundle of general-purpose financial statements. The main reason is that the stakeholders prove a sharp interest in such disclosures. To sustain in today’s corporate world, every organization has to come forward to protect the environment and it is treated as one of the vital social responsibilities. It is assumed that corporations are the main force to create an environmental crisis so as to pay for this (cost-benefit trade-off). But we know reporting is guided by some standards guidelines and measurements and for this, we do not have any standards designed for such disclosure. Hence, such reporting is still considered voluntary and has no specific format and design. As it is voluntary disclosure, it often leads to some non-disclosure and mandatory disclosures which in turn leads to minimal disclosures. As it is a question of life and sustainability, environmental disclosure should have considered both types of disclosures; hence, this paper will try to evaluate the conceptual discussion on environmental reporting.

Measuring performance in corporate environmental reporting in Nigeria

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to measure the current level of corporate environmental reporting (CER) in the developing economy of Nigeria. This is with a view to drive the effort of firms towards improving on the present practice. An attempt is made to also determine the extent to which the level of CER differs on account of firm characteristics.Design/methodology/approachThe study used data for the top 40 companies on the Nigerian stock exchange as of 31 December 2017 based on market capitalization. The annual reports, company website and sustainability reports were the major sources of data. The paper used descriptive statistics and one-way analysis of variance to analyse data.FindingsDespite the attempt to explore multiple sources in obtaining environmental information, empirical evidence from the present study confirms that the level of environmental reporting is low; most companies report environmental issues through the website. It further found an association between CER and firm size.Practical implicationsThe findings will be of interest to policymakers and regulators on the need to regulate environmental reporting. Thus, motivating firms towards better environmental performance in Nigeria.Originality/valueThe paper extends environmental reporting research in Nigeria beyond the use of annual reports. It captured environmental information reported through the website and sustainability reports. It provides information on the current status in terms of quality and content of information reported. Finally, it found that firm size is a contingent factor for CER in Nigeria.

Corporate Environmental Accounting and Reporting, Disclosure and Determinants of Pharmaceutical Companies

Corporate Environmental Accounting and Reporting, Disclosure and Determinants of Pharmaceutical Companies

Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting in OHADA Context: Evidence from Companies Listed on the Douala Stock Exchange

This research questions the capacity of the OHADA accounting system to report on the societal commitment of companies. To carry out such a study, we are interested in the companies of the Douala Stock Exchange, which permanently publish green operations. The analysis was done at two levels: the first level of analysis highlighted the categories of green operations reported by the companies of our sample. The second level of analysis consisted in analysing the financial statements produced by these companies, in order to see in which accounts green transactions are recorded. The analysis reveals that, apart from some additional clarifications to be made in the appendices, the financial statements produced according to OHADA do not specifically highlight green information. Keywords : Green operations, societal commitment DOI : 10.7176/RJFA/10-24-11 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

The Impact of Environmental Administrative Penalties on the Disclosure of Environmental Information

Stakeholders often have a significant interest in the disclosure of information by companies that have received environmental penalties. This study examines how environmental administrative penalties influence companies’ environmental disclosures. Using a sample of 316 manufacturing companies across three years in China, the regression results indicate that the level of voluntary environmental information disclosure (EID) is significantly positively affected by environmental penalties. For companies in heavily polluting industries, environmental penalties decrease their involuntary EID. Environmental penalties also reduce the quality of environmental information, which is mainly reflected in the weakening of the integrity, comprehensibility, and relevance of environmental information in corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports or environmental reports. These findings help us to understand the sustainability of corporate environmental responsibility in the context of environmental administrative penalties.

Board characteristic and corporate environmental reporting in Nigeria

Purpose The issue that revolves around corporate governance and corporate environmental reporting (CER) has always been an essential element deliberated upon globally. A good corporate governance mechanism instills an investor’s confidence and ensures a transparent process that facilitates more disclosures and quality reporting. Precisely, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate governance variables, namely, board size, board independence, board meeting (BM), risk management committee composition and CER in Nigeria. This study utilized the data obtained from the annual reports of 24 non-financial public listed companies in the Nigeria Stock Exchange comprising three sectors, namely, industrial goods, natural resources and oil & gas for the period of 2011–2015. The model of this study is theoretically based on agency theory. In analyzing data, this study utilized panel data analysis. Based on the Hausman test, the random effect model was used to examine the effect of predictors on CER. The result indicates a positive significant relationship between board independence and CER. Similarly, a positive significant relationship between BM and CER is revealed in the study. However, there is no significant relationship between other hypothesis variables and CER. Finally, the study provides suggestions for future research and several recommendations for regulators, government and accounting professional bodies. Design/methodology/approach The data was analysed using statistics. Findings The result indicates a positive significant relationship between board independence and CER. Similarly, a positive significant relationship between BM and CER is revealed in the study. However, there is no significant relationship between other hypothesis variables and CER. Originality/value There are no prior studies linking risk management committee with CER.

Corporate Social and Environmental Strategy and Reporting in Indonesian Plantation Industry

This study aims to investigate how corporate social and environmental strategy can contribute to corporate social and environmental reporting (CSER) in the plantation industry in Indonesia. This study employed a case study approach by using semi–structured interviews to collect data from Indonesian plantation companies listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) and state–owned plantation companies that included CSER in their annual report. The motivation of CSER implementation in Indonesian plantation companies was influenced by proactive and reactive strategies. The corporate social and environmental strategy of proactive principles would publish CSER due to the social discretion beyond the regulatory requirements or pressure of certain stakeholders, and prior to any negative information being received by the public. Moreover, the corporate social and environmental strategy of reactive principles would also publish CSER to meet stakeholders’ needs and demands, obtain good corporate image and reputation, and avoid negative impacts (e.g., harm, hazards, mishap, complaints, etc.). Therefore, corporate social and environmental strategy can contribute to CSER depending on whether the company has proactive or reactive principles. This research contributes to the knowledge of social accounting literature in which CSER practices can be influenced by corporate social and environmental strategy.