Corporate Environmental Reporting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4500 words

Corporate Environmental Reporting - Essay Example The stakeholders have been under utter confusion with regard to the information contained in the reports. Naturally, an expectation gap exists between the users (stakeholders) and preparers of environmental reports. At this juncture, a study is relevant as to examine whether there is any such expectation gap is present or not. The present study, therefore, attempts to examine the difference in the perception of preparers and users of environmental reports in the U.K. The study is carried out as an exploratory research by suing sample survey. An extensive preliminary research has been undertaken so as to acquire a basic knowledge of the unexplored area. The study heavily relies on primary data and data are collected directly from the respondents using two sets of well structured questionnaire. An interview schedule is also prepared to collect data. The population for the study comprises of two sets of professionals, namely chartered accountants and chief accounting officials of 200 ma nufacturing firms in the U.K. Naturally, the sample size of the survey comes to 400 put together. The data collected are edited, coded and analyzed to arrive at meaningful conclusions and generalizations. Because of the increased emphasis on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) the world over, corporations are obliged to present the information about the fulfillment of their duties towards various stakeholders including society... Corporations across the globe have accepted CSR as an effective tool for sustainable development and high financial performance. To communicate and share the information about what the corporations have done in respect of CSR is made possible through what is popularly known as Environmental Reporting (ER). In a broad sense, environmental reporting is known by various nomenclatures such as Corporate Social Reporting, Triple Bottom Line Reporting etc. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) defines Environmental Reporting as "public reports by companies to provide internal and external stakeholders with a picture of the corporate position and activities on economic, environmental and social dimensions". It is taken as a means to publicly demonstrate organizations' commitment to environmental obligations and to disseminate information on their environmental performance and initiatives. In most of the countries, environmental reporting has not been made mandatory, but corporations take it as obligation on their part to fulfill the information needs of the various stakeholders by preparing various reports in an appropriate manner. In the developed countries like the U.K and the U.S., it is being widely established and applied by big as well as small organizations. As per the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines, following are the principles of environmental reporting. - Transparency; - Accuracy; - Clarity; - Inclusiveness and completeness; - Verifiability and auditability; - Timeliness; - Relevance to the concerns of stakeholders; - Comparability (to facilitate comparison over time and between organizations); and, - Neutrality Since the emergence