Walking the Thin Green Line: The Australian Experience of Corporate Environmental Reporting

Abstract

Increasingly, Australian corporations are publicly reporting their environmental performance. Australia's Minister for the Environment and Heritage, Senator Robert Hill states that "the Government sees considerable value in greater public environmental reporting. It can help in meeting environmental accountability and community right-to-know concerns as well as generating significant business benefits to the reporting organisation. I am keen to see organisations of all sizes producing a public environmental report commensurate to their size and environmental impacts".¹ Over half of Australia's top 100 companies report their environmental performance in their annual reports or directors statements. Regulatory requirements, stakeholder's right-to-know, and community pressure are driving increased public environmental reporting (PER) among large Australian companies. The strong International and Australian growth in interest in socially responsible investments (SRI), and SRI funds will encourage wider, and more comprehensive reporting among publicly listed Australian companies. Five new Australian SRI funds are expected to be launched by December 2001. While these drivers are also encouraging small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), supply chain issues, the direct financial benefits the process of PER provides through reduced operating costs and better internal management of resources, and improved stakeholder relationships, are proving more influential reporting motivators. There have been two environmental reporting initiatives recently introduced into Australia. These are the mandatory reporting requirements under the Australian Corporations Law, and a voluntary reporting framework commissioned by the Federal Australian government. This article analyses the companies' performances pursuant to their first reporting year under the mandatory reporting requirements and discusses the drivers and barriers to environmental reporting among SMEs, describing, through two case studies, the environmental reporting experience of two SMEs.