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Corporate sustainability reporting and the relations with evaluation
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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
This paper assesses how sustainability reporting practices have been adopted in organizations which
operate in a Southern European country, Portugal, and how those practices are related with environmental
management and evaluation systems. A questionnaire survey was carried out in 2006, involving a
statistical population of 69 firms, specifically the member companies of the Business Council for Sustainable
Development Portugal, the Portuguese branch of the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development. The questionnaire survey was designed to assess: (i) the use of environmental management
systems (EMS) and environmental performance evaluation (EPE) frameworks and (ii) practices
connected with environmental and sustainability performance reporting, namely: report formats; regularity;
key target audiences; reporting driving forces; guidelines; and future intentions. The results
indicate that the environmental management system was a well-accepted environmental management
tool. More than half of the companies surveyed had adopted environmental performance evaluation
related frameworks. Corporate sustainability reporting was found to be a growing issue in a high number
of organizations. Those companies that produce a sustainability/environmental report have an EMS and
EPE in place. Most organizations in the study produced annual reports, in accordance with Global
Reporting Initiative guidelines. Despite the increasing interest among organizations in the adoption of
environmental and sustainability measurement and reporting practices, this issue was mainly confined
to larger companies. The six Portuguese Small and Medium Enterprises analyzed show a poor environmental
management and environmental performance evaluation and sustainability reporting profile.
The findings show that they needed to be more engaged with these practices. Specific drivers must be
used to enable these directions, including environmental education and raising awareness, since that is
the first step toward improving the current scenario of reaching a better sustainable profile.
Description
Keywords
Corporate sustainability Measurement and reporting Environmental performance evaluation Environmental management systems Portugal