Significance and issues in environmental reporting

Abstract

At present, the attention of stakeholders regarding the information about the organizational impact on the physical environment has been significantly increased in developing countries as well as in developed countries. Several organizations use their Environmental Reporting to notify stakeholders of how well they dealt with the environmental impacts. Even though Environmental Reporting gives an opening to demonstrate their accountabilities to the society, the current environmental disclosures do not suitably match with the information needed by various groups of stakeholders. This paper enquires about the importance of Environmental Reporting, the existing reporting methods and practices, deviations between the guidelines which companies follow and actual reporting disclosures and to disclose reasons to the lack of supply in such information as well as the significant methods that can be practiced in order to satisfy the Global Reporting Index, Act No. 47 of 1980, Central Environmental Authority, Sri Lanka and other additional generally accepted guidelines. This research reveals that both in developed countries and in developing countries, the fluctuations of information occurs due to the absence of Accounting Standards, Regulations or Rules for environmental reporting which can convince the informational needs of relevant stakeholders.