Integrating Disclosure of Environmental Impacts between Mandatory and Voluntary Information

• Grant number: 17/16203-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: November 01, 2017
• End date: October 31, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Administration - Accounting
• Principal Investigator: Maísa de Souza Ribeiro
• Grantee: Maísa de Souza Ribeiro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade de Ribeirão Preto (FEARP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to analyze the integration between compulsory and voluntary information on environmental impacts. Companies, as organized entities, cause significant changes to the environment, and so efforts have been made to create incentives for them to change that situation and thus influence the individual attitudes of those with whom they relate. Disclosure has the power to hold society accountable for how to use resources under corporate responsibility (human, natural and economic) and also to inhibit unsuitable behavior. However, two distinct groups of information have emerged: the obligatory and the voluntary, which are not always corresponding, thus creating credibility problems. In July 2017, there are 510 (IIRC, 2017) companies around the world that have adhered to the use of the latest guidelines to make mandatory and voluntary information compatible, with Accounting being one of the basic elements for such integration. The documentary analysis of the financial statements and sustainability reports of these organizations will enable the data to be compared to identify the level of integration already achieved, as well as the characteristics of the organizations that do it. The main target will be the environmental impacts and, therefore, the environmental liabilities. The result of this research may contribute to a more emphatic performance in the sectors with the best conditions to reach sustainability more quickly and also to identify those that need more attention in the preliminary stages. (AU)