The spread of voluntary environmental information: accounting reports versus internet

Abstract

Due to the Internet arrival, companies have drastically changed the way to present information about economic, financial and environmental activities performance. Most companies voluntarily report environmental data and this is a growing tendency. This is probably a way companies react to structural changes, as well as establish a clearer dialogue with its stakeholders. This exploratory study aimed to identify the differences between disclosing environmental voluntary information on the Internet and through accounting reports from a sample universe of 60 Brazilian companies performing potentially polluting activities. There were meaningful differences between the information contents in accounting reports and Internet data. More than the double of the amount of voluntary environmental information was found on the Internet. Nevertheless, there were a lot of discrepancies in the way companies in the same field reported information both via the Internet and in accounting reports.