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Corporate Governance and Environmental Reporting: an Australian study

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  • Kathy Gibson
  • Gary O'Donovan

Abstract

The development of best practice recommendations by the Corporate Governance Council (CGC) of the Australian Stock Exchange in 2003 clearly linked corporate regulators' concerns about good governance to the concept of corporate social and environmental responsibility. The CGC recommended that one way to demonstrate good governance was to use the annual report to disclose information to all legitimate stakeholders. This paper reports on the quantity and categories of environmental information disclosed in the corporate annual reports of 41 Australian companies across eight industry groups covering the period 1983–2003. This time period has seen the importance of good corporate governance practice in relation to environmental protection escalate, as demonstrated by the introduction of separate environmental and sustainability reports, the advent of triple bottom line reporting, changes in environmental legislation and the occurrence of major environmental incidents. The results of this study indicate that an increasing number of companies are disclosing environmental information, and the relative volume of such information in annual reports is increasing across all categories.

Suggested Citation

  • Kathy Gibson & Gary O'Donovan, 2007. "Corporate Governance and Environmental Reporting: an Australian study," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(5), pages 944-956, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:corgov:v:15:y:2007:i:5:p:944-956
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8683.2007.00615.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Yi Zhang, 2022. "Analyst coverage and corporate social responsibility decoupling: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(3), pages 620-634, May.
    2. Anna Jessop & Nicole Wilson & Michal Bardecki & Cory Searcy, 2019. "Corporate Environmental Disclosure in India: An Analysis of Multinational and Domestic Agrochemical Corporations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-33, September.
    3. Abdalla Shwairef & Azlan Amran & Mohammad Iranmanesh & Noor Hazlina Ahmad, 2021. "The mediating effect of strategic posture on corporate governance and environmental reporting," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 349-378, February.
    4. Hrasky, Sue, 2012. "Visual disclosure strategies adopted by more and less sustainability-driven companies," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 154-165.
    5. MuiChing Chan & John Watson & David Woodliff, 2014. "Corporate Governance Quality and CSR Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(1), pages 59-73, November.
    6. Matthias S. Fifka, 2013. "Corporate Responsibility Reporting and its Determinants in Comparative Perspective – a Review of the Empirical Literature and a Meta‐analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 1-35, January.
    7. Michaela Rankin & Carolyn Windsor & Dina Wahyuni, 2011. "An investigation of voluntary corporate greenhouse gas emissions reporting in a market governance system," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 1037-1070, October.
    8. Mitzi Cubilla‐Montilla & Ana‐Belén Nieto‐Librero & Ma Purificación Galindo‐Villardón & Ma Purificación Vicente Galindo & Isabel‐María Garcia‐Sanchez, 2019. "Are cultural values sufficient to improve stakeholder engagement human and labour rights issues?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 938-955, July.
    9. Qiang Li & Tian Li & Hongtao Chen & Erwei Xiang & Wenjuan Ruan, 2019. "Executives' excess compensation, legitimacy, and environmental information disclosure in Chinese heavily polluting companies: The moderating role of media pressure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 248-256, January.
    10. Yasser Eliwa & Ahmed Aboud & Ahmed Saleh, 2023. "Board gender diversity and ESG decoupling: Does religiosity matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4046-4067, November.
    11. X. Meng & S. Zeng & C. Tam & X. Xu, 2013. "Whether Top Executives’ Turnover Influences Environmental Responsibility: From the Perspective of Environmental Information Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 341-353, May.
    12. Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2014. "Does voluntary carbon disclosure reflect underlying carbon performance?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 191-205.
    13. Ntim, Collins G., 2016. "Corporate governance, corporate health accounting, and firm value: The case of HIV/AIDS disclosures in Sub-Saharan Africa," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 155-216.
    14. Clive Boddy & Richard Ladyshewsky & Peter Galvin, 2010. "The Influence of Corporate Psychopaths on Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Commitment to Employees," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 97(1), pages 1-19, November.
    15. Yussri Sawani & Mustaffa Mohamed Zain & Faizah Darus, 2010. "Preliminary insights on sustainability reporting and assurance practices in Malaysia," Social Responsibility Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 6(4), pages 627-645, October.
    16. Krishnamurti, Chandrasekhar & Velayutham, Eswaran, 2018. "The influence of board committee structures on voluntary disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions: Australian evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 65-81.
    17. Pavlopoulos, Athanasios & Magnis, Chris & Iatridis, George Emmanuel, 2017. "Integrated reporting: Is it the last piece of the accounting disclosure puzzle?," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 23-46.
    18. DeBoskey, D.G. & Luo, Yan & Wang, Jeff J., 2018. "Do specialized board committees impact the transparency of corporate political disclosure? Evidence from S&P 500 companies," Research in Accounting Regulation, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 8-19.
    19. Shahid Manzoor Shah, 2020. "Corporate Governance And Firm Level Characteristics Of Sustainability: Evidence From Non-Financial Firms Operating In The Usa," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 9(2), pages 92-100, June.
    20. Ismail N.B. & Sébastien Alcouffe & Galy N & Ceulemans K, 2020. "The impact of international sustainability initiatives on Life Cycle Assessment voluntary disclosures: The case of France’s CAC40 listed companies," Post-Print hal-03082800, HAL.
    21. repec:thr:techub:10015:y:2021:i:1:p:1-18 is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Aries Sutantoputra, 2022. "Do stakeholders’ demands matter in environmental disclosure practices? Evidence from Australia," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(2), pages 449-478, June.
    23. Isabel María García‐Sánchez & María‐Elena Gómez‐Miranda & Fátima David & Lazaro Rodríguez‐Ariza, 2019. "Analyst coverage and forecast accuracy when CSR reports improve stakeholder engagement: The Global Reporting Initiative‐International Finance Corporation disclosure strategy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1392-1406, November.

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