Title: A methodology to evaluate the disclosure practices of organisations related to climate change risks: a case study of international airports

Authors: Thomas A. Tsalis; Vaia D. Botsaropoulou; Ioannis E. Nikolaou

Addresses: Business Economics and Environmental Technology Lab, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Vas Sofias 12, 67100, Xanthi, Greece ' Business Economics and Environmental Technology Lab, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Vas Sofias 12, 67100, Xanthi, Greece ' Business Economics and Environmental Technology Lab, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Vas Sofias 12, 67100, Xanthi, Greece

Abstract: Today, climate change poses unprecedented challenges for businesses. Different stakeholders have recently requested that companies reveal comprehensive information about their performance concerning climate change issues. Despite the growing level of environmental information disclosed by environmental and sustainability reports, there is no consistency regarding the reporting practices adopted by companies and as a result the assessment of disclosed information is a very difficult task. The lack of standard, and mandatory accounting principles for climate change accounting makes the introduction of climate change risks into stakeholders decisions difficult. This paper develops a scoring technique in order to investigate the disclosure habits of organisations regarding climate change risks. The proposed scoring system is based on GRI guidelines and it is applied in various international airports. In general the findings indicate that although the number of sustainability reports published by airports has increased, they do not provide comprehensive information about climate related risks.

Keywords: climate change accounting; scoring systems; corporate sustainability; sustainability reports; airports.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGW.2018.093120

International Journal of Global Warming, 2018 Vol.15 No.3, pp.257 - 276

Received: 25 Nov 2016
Accepted: 13 Apr 2017
Published online: 10 Jul 2018 *

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