Title: An examination of environmental disclosures of most polluting companies in India

Authors: G. Ezhilarasi

Addresses: Faculty in Commerce, Golaghat Polytechnic, Golaghat, Assam, India

Abstract: The purpose of the study is to find the status of environmental disclosures of the most polluting companies in India. Environmental disclosures are measured by a checklist of items based on 'global reporting initiative' guidelines as well as environmental regulations prevailing in India. Disclosure scores are drawn individually by using content analysis of annual reports for a sample of 130 most polluting companies in India for a period of eight years, i.e., from 2009-2010 to 2016-2017. The extent of environmental disclosures of the most polluting companies in India is limited. But the year wise movement shows an increasing trend, suggesting that disclosure practices have been improved over the study period especially after the inclusion of business responsibility reports. The overall result shows that the polluting companies in India are disclosing environmental information in their annual reports as a strategy to create social image among their stakeholders and also for competitive advantage. It is felt that for better environmental disclosures, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) should mandate all the listed companies to disclose detailed environmental information in their periodic report for enhancing the transparency and accountability of such disclosure.

Keywords: environmental disclosures; content analysis; environmental disclosure index; global reporting initiative; GRI; annual reports; business responsibility report.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAF.2019.106751

International Journal of Accounting and Finance, 2019 Vol.9 No.2/3/4, pp.111 - 129

Accepted: 07 May 2019
Published online: 20 Apr 2020 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article