Corporate environmental non-reporting - A UK FTSE 350 perspective

Until relatively recently the majority of large publicly listed UK companies have not produced annual environmental reports. Of particular note is the slow take-up of environmental reporting amongst the UK's top 350 companies, the FTSE 350. Using the results of a postal questionnaire, the reluctance of a majority of the FTSE 350 to voluntarily report is linked to 13 drawbacks. Results from non-reporting respondents to the questionnaire allowed the relative importance of these drawbacks to be placed in a ranked order. Senior management doubt over the advantages of reporting was shown to be the most important drawback, closely followed by the effort required for data collection. A comparison in the uptake of corporate environmental management practices (other than reporting) was also made amongst reporters and non-reporters. Reporters were shown to have a generally higher level of uptake, although company sector type and size was influential on environmental engagement overall

Assessing Corporate Environmental Reporting Motivations: Differences Between 'Close to Market' and 'Business to Business' Companies

In this paper we examine whether proximity to market affects the extent and form of corporate environmental reporting of companies listed in the FTSE 250. The reason for examining this issue is that it is frequently asserted, but not demonstrated, that closeness to market will correlate positively with proactive communication of environmental activities. Our results show that this assertion is, in particular reporting contexts, true. In particular, we find that companies who are close to market, or are brand-name companies, are highly likely to adopt one of the several forms of environmental reporting considered (particularly reporting on product life-cycle or supply chain and reporting through the BitC benchmark system). We also show that companies proximate to market are more likely to be the target of media attention, but are unable within the bounds of the research to assess whether this is a cause of increased environmental reporting or an effect of it. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment