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Environmental Reports (environmental + report)
Kinds of Environmental Reports Selected AbstractsEnvironmental reporting and transport , the case of a public transport companyBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 6 2003Otto Andersen This article discusses corporate environmental reporting in the field of transport. In addition to addressing this issue in general, the article includes empirical material from a case transport company. The process of preparing the year 2000 environmental report for the company is described. The environmental report includes actions for improving the environmental performance of the company, and indicators for monitoring of the progress from year to year. This is based on separate studies of the employees' company travels, daily travel to work and the purchasing of energy. The company is using societal accounting to show its responsibility as an important societal actor, improving the stakeholder dialogue and providing knowledge at the political level. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Pollutant release and transfer registers: examining the value of government-led reporting on corporate environmental performanceCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 5 2007Rory Sullivan Abstract Within this paper, we argue that the data released by companies through corporate environmental reports are of very limited value, particularly for analysts seeking to benchmark the environmental performance of different companies or sites. We also argue that the data published by governments through pollutant release and transfer registers (PRTRs) such as the US Toxic Releases Inventory (TRI) or the EU Polluting Emissions Register (EPER) are of much greater value in comparative analyses. However, we recognize that PRTRs are limited in their scope and there are differences between the PRTRs that are in place in different countries. We find then that while PRTRs can inform comparative analyses within countries, their potential to provide a basis for benchmarking across different countries has not yet been fulfilled. Nonetheless, we conclude that PRTRs often provide the best available data for benchmarking corporate environmental performance and that increases in their scope and a harmonization of their design could play a significant role in illuminating variations in corporate environmental performance over time and across space. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Scoring corporate environmental and sustainability reports using GRI 2000, ISO 14031 and other criteriaCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2002Prof. J. Emil Morhardt The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the extent to which current voluntary corporate environmental reports meet the requirements of two new sets of guidelines: (i) the Global Reporting Initiative GRI 2000 sustainability reporting guidelines and (ii) the ISO 14031 environmental performance evaluation standard. We converted them to comprehensiveness scoring systems then used them along with three existing comprehensiveness scoring systems to evaluate the 1999 reports of 40 of the largest global industrial companies. Many of the reports scored highly with the existing systems, but the GRI and ISO guidelines are much more detailed and comprehensive, and resulted in much lower scores. In particular, the economic and social topics that make up 42% of the potential GRI score and the environmental condition indicators that make up 22% of the ISO 14031 score were minimally addressed in all of the companies' environmental reports. Current reporting practices of the companies whose reports we examined here are well below the standards reflected in the GRI and ISO 14031 guidelines, even when the reports scored well with existing report scoring systems. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [source] The role of indicators in improving timeliness of international environmental reportsENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2006Ulla Rosenström Abstract Environmental indicators were developed mainly to improve information flows from scientists to policy-makers. This article discusses the importance of timely environmental data and investigates the influence of indicator-based reporting on the data timeliness of environmental reports by international organizations. Timeliness of information contributes to the quality and appeal of the reports, and to their role as early warning tools, and increases their usability by decision-makers in short-term decision cycles. The results of an analysis of 11 international reports by the European Environmental Agency (EEA) and the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) show a considerable time lag of three years on average, with only minor development towards more timely reporting. The results suggest that the introduction of environmental indicators has not improved the timeliness of reporting. In order to overcome these problems, the article recommends some methods for improving timeliness. These include better choice of indicators in smaller sets, use of preliminary data and outlooks, development of new indicators, publishing on the internet and more effective use of internet databases to avoid intermediate levels in data collection. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Corporate environmental non-reporting , a UK FTSE 350 perspectiveBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2008A. D. Martin Abstract Until relatively recently the majority of large publicly listed UK companies have not produced annual environmental reports. Of particular note is the slow take-up of environmental reporting amongst the UK's top 350 companies, the FTSE 350. Using the results of a postal questionnaire, the reluctance of a majority of the FTSE 350 to voluntarily report is linked to 13 drawbacks. Results from non-reporting respondents to the questionnaire allowed the relative importance of these drawbacks to be placed in a ranked order. Senior management doubt over the advantages of reporting was shown to be the most important drawback, closely followed by the effort required for data collection. A comparison in the uptake of corporate environmental management practices (other than reporting) was also made amongst reporters and non-reporters. Reporters were shown to have a generally higher level of uptake, although company sector type and size was influential on environmental engagement overall. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Relationship between environmental performance and financial performance: an empirical analysis of japanese corporationsBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 2 2007Yuriko Nakao Abstract The hypotheses that a firm's environmental performance has a positive impact on its financial performance and vice versa are statistically supported by Japanese data. However, this tendency for two-way positive interaction appears to be only a relatively recent phenomenon. The tendency for realizing the two-way interaction is not limited to the top-scoring firms in terms of both financial and environmental performance. On the contrary, this is also a trend that can be observed fairly generally. Obviously, when we consider only scores of those companies that published the relevant information in their environmental reports, and conduct the statistical causality test with such information as additional input to the pooled time-series and cross-section data of financial performance, the results become more strongly significant. From the recent experience of environmental policies in Japan, we infer that information-based environmental policy measures are effective to encourage the ongoing transition toward a more sustainable market economy. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] From sustainable management to sustainable development: a longitudinal analysis of a leading New Zealand environmental reporterBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2006Helen Tregidga Abstract This paper reports the results of an interpretive textual analysis of New Zealand's most consistent and arguably leading reporter on environmental and social impacts. Since 1995, Watercare Services Ltd, an Auckland-based water utility, has been an award winning environmental reporter. The paper works with all of the organization's reports since 1993 through 2003 identifying and analysing the emergence and development of a sustainable development discourse. Focusing on the language and images used to construct meanings, and the context in which the reports emerged, the paper traces the organization's reporting developments. The paper illustrates how, in evolving from environmental reports to sustainable development reports, the organization has (re)constructed itself from one that sustainably manages resources to one that practises sustainable development. The implications of these developments are explored in terms of the literature on ,capture' and organizational change. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Corporate environmental reporting: what's in a metric?BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 2 2003R. Scott Marshall Assistant Professor of Management Although there has been increased attention to corporate environmental reports (CERs), there has yet to be a close examination of the metrics used in these reports. Metrics do not address the content of CERs, but, perhaps more importantly, metrics provide the means for conveying the content. In this paper, we analyze metrics used in 79 corporations' recent CER reports. We define and use an 'environmental sustainability' lens, and apply two environmental metrics taxonomies to CER metrics. We also consider the implications of key internal and external firm factors on CER metrics. Our findings suggest that (i) firms' compliance with ISO 14001 increases the presence of future oriented metrics, (ii) a majority of CER content uses lagging metrics with descriptive and operational performance information, (iii) larger firms are more likely than smaller firms to use future oriented metrics and (iv) there are noticeable differences across countries/regions in terms of CER metrics. Several important issues seem evident from the study. First, the metrics most commonly used in CERs provide little information about future performance. Second, the majority of metrics describe operations performance rather than environmental impact. Third, even though the sample was chosen based on a priori indicators of corporate environmental awareness, only about half of the companies sampled had a CER available. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [source] Environmental reporting in Australia: current practices and issues for the futureBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 6 2002Dr. Roger L. Burritt This briefing addresses a number of current practices in environmental reporting in Australia. It is limited to consideration of mandatory and voluntary initiatives at the national level (rather than state or territory levels). Three initiatives are explored. Two of these are mandatory requirements,section 299 corporate disclosures required under the 2001 Corporations Act and section 516 disclosures by Commonwealth government organizations under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. One other initiative is voluntary,Public Environmental Reporting,and is aimed at all organizations. Links with the Global Reporting Initiative are considered, followed by a brief comment on incentives and users of environmental reports. The briefing concludes by raising three issues that need to be addressed in the future,sustainable development; education, training and communication; and environmental accounting. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment [source] Characteristics of environmental reporters on the OM Stockholm exchangeBUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 5 2002Pontus Cerin External validation of company environmental performance is normally based on corporate environmental reports, due to the lack of other information. Critics of these reports, however, claim that these are no more than public relations exercises, consisting mainly of wordy descriptions and glossy pictures. It is therefore important to turn the spotlight on the real character of the companies behind the reports. Fewer than 10% of the companies listed on the OM Stockholm Exchange, however, provide documented environmental reports on the Internet (DERI) annually. The highest DERI percentages are found among those industry sectors that began reporting some ten years ago. Data from the Dow Jones Country Index Sweden shows that DERI producers have an average market capitalization some six times greater than non-producers. Moreover, the DERI producers emitted twice as much CO2 per turnover as the non-DERI producers. The fact that less than half of the companies on the OM Stockholm Exchange presented CO2 emission data somewhat weakens the conclusions on emissions. The fact that 60% of the DERI producers could not provide complete CO2 emission data for their companies does say something concrete about the usefulness of current DERIs as a tool for externally determining company environmental performance characteristics. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] | ||||||||||