Incentives and Disincentives for Corporate Environmental Reporting

The year 2000 saw the launch of AA1000, an ethical standard designed to enable corporate ethical performance to be judged. If such ethical performance is interpreted as social and environmental behaviour our view is that it may lead to more social and environmental reporting. Yet the willingness to communicate corporate social and environmental performance still seems to be limited. Of the social and environmental disclosures that exist many appear to be rather fragmented and disparate. In this paper we explore the apparent paradox between the concern for corporate social responsibility (EIRIS, 1999) and the limited amount of corporate social reporting that takes place. Through an empirical study, focusing on one aspect of social responsibility, corporate environmental disclosures are used to consider the perceived incentives and disincentives to companies in making such disclosures. Findings from the empirical study identify a difference between ‘users'’ information requirements and ‘preparers'’ willingness to provide. The paper makes some tentative policy suggestions with the intention of bringing the two parties closer together.