Search results

The study examined voluntary disclosure of contributions towards SDG-6 achievement by premium board companies in the Nigerian Stock Exchange. It employed a qualitative research design in which data were collected from the sustainability/annual reports of these companies and subjected to content analysis. The analysis shows overall poor quality as the disclosures are not linked to indicators that can help measure the extent of meeting the UN set target for SDG-6. Two tangible indicators disclosed are water use efficiency and construction of boreholes. However, there is no disclosure of the proportion of the population that gained access to clean water through these initiatives. Similarly, poor quality exists when compliance with GRI-303 on water information disclosure was assessed. The motivation behind the disclosures points to a continuation of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The objective is to gain a social licence to operate, and legitimation as opposed to signalling superior SDG-6 performance.

The research objectives of this chapter are threefold. First, we explore what is the current status of corporate water accounting tools and methodologies. Second, we develop a framework for analyzing corporate water accounting and reporting. Third, we investigate what French CAC 40 companies account for and report in relations to the water challenge.

We collected annual and sustainability reports from all CAC 40 companies as well as their water Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) responses when available. We also collected all publically available corporate water accounting methodologies to assess the international water accounting field. We coded the data according to our designed framework via qualitative data analysis software.

Although water is seen as equally important to climate change (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), 2009), French multinationals have a very immature reporting on this topic. Most still do not report to the water disclosure questionnaire of CDP in 2014 and rely on basic figures such as global water consumption. We analyzed the multiple water accounting, reporting, and risk assessment frameworks that have mushroomed since 2000, and question the impact of this fragmented field on the maturity of the water performance reporting by French companies.

The developed framework for analysis of water reporting can be used for sustainability teaching at university level.

We developed the first comprehensive analytical framework for water corporate reporting assessment. Moreover, this research is the first comprehensive study of water reporting in Europe. We therefore contribute to extend our comprehension of corporate maturity in water stewardship and water performance reporting.

The aim of this chapter is to determine the need for water management and accounting.

This chapter first gives an overview of water-related business risks and exposes the need for sound corporate water management and accounting; it then critically examines water-related issues from an accountability perspective. Furthermore, it gives an overview of Australian Standardised Water Accounting (SWA) and General Purpose Water Accounting (GPWA) as possible practices to strengthen water disclosure.

The present study confirms the need for, and the importance of, transparent, high-quality, credible and comparable water disclosure. Water is considered a public good and involves a public interest and, consequently, public responsibility for its usage, management and protection. Following this line of reasoning, the chapter draws attention to the need for accountability to be ‘public’ or at least shared between crucial stakeholders (government – at national and international levels, water industries, communities, environmentalists, NGOs, etc.).

Company efforts are commonly focused on internal and self-referred operations. The different and conflicting uses that may be made of water, and the fact that water is geographically and temporally sensitive, necessitate a search for more flexible and more extended forms of accountability. An implication of these findings is the need and opportunity to switch focus from a single/private perspective to a more general/public one, with benefits for all the stakeholders.

This research enhances our understanding of water management and accounting and may serve as a sound base for future studies on this challenging topic.

In decades since the Rio Summit, freshwater has become an increasingly prominent issue in the global arena and attention has turned to the role of the corporate sector. Various (predominantly voluntary) corporate water accounting standards currently exist, from water-related components in wide-ranging sustainability standards such as the Global Reporting Initiative through to standards specifically focused on water and/or a particular industry. While academic research on adoption of these standards is sparse, initial findings reveal generally poor water reporting in terms of both quality and quantity. In future, the major areas where reporting (and standards) could be improved are the provision of site-level water information and the assessment of water risk throughout the supply chain.

The purpose of this chapter is to examine the corporate water reporting of the selected South African listed food producers with regard to the activities of measuring, managing, engaging with their stakeholders, and disclosing of their water risks.

This chapter examined the sustainability and integrated reports of 14 food producer companies on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), for the years 2013 and 2017. The company reports were examined using the Ceres Aqua Gauge™ as the framework.

The findings of this study are that there were improvements in water disclosure from 2013 to 2017. Most companies are disclosing the basic water reporting requirements. However, critical areas around stakeholder engagement and supply chain water management were found to be lacking.

This research contributes to the body of knowledge around water disclosure and increases the awareness of water scarcity and poor water quality in South Africa. Furthermore, the study highlights that the food producers could be doing a lot more with regard to water sustainability in their businesses and the country.

Internet usage has exploded over the past decade and the medium is now being suggested as a potentially powerful tool for disclosing environmental information and increasing corporate accountability. This study, grounded in legitimacy theory, argues that such a view may be overly optimistic. Results of an analysis of both annual report and corporate web page environmental disclosures for a sample of 62 U.S. firms do indicate that corporate web pages appear to be adding at least some additional, non-redundant environmental information beyond what is provided in the annual reports. However, the relative lack of negative environmental disclosure on the web pages, in conjunction with the finding that differences in the level of positive/neutral environmental disclosure are associated with legitimacy variables suggests that the focus of Internet disclosure may be more on corporate attempts at legitimation than on moving toward greater corporate accountability.

In this chapter, we investigate whether the first-time issuance of a standalone corporate sustainability report led to changes in reputation as measured by Fortune Most Admired scores. Based on a sample of 59 U.S. companies issuing their first standalone sustainability report over the period from 2001 to 2007, and controlling for the financial “halo effect” reported by Brown and Perry (1994), we find, on average no significant changes in reputational scores. However, cross sectional analysis shows that issuing companies from socially exposed industries experienced decreases in scores. Further, report quality, at least at the extremes appears to be positively related to changes in perceived reputation. These results are consistent with Godfrey's (2005) arguments with respect to corporate reputation.