The purpose of this paper is to investigate and explore the influence that corporate carbon disclosure has on investor decision-­‐making and associated attitudes. The researcher conducted semi-­‐structured interviews with individual investors and institutional investors and fund managers operating in the South African environment in order to gain appropriate insights about their attitudes towards the place of carbon disclosure in the investment analyses. Additionally, semi-­‐structured interviews were held with three prominent petroleum companies operating in the oil and gas industry in South Africa. The results of the research were categorised into four themes that emerged upon analysis of the research findings, namely: the evolution of commercial thinking in terms of carbon emissions and carbon disclosure; the relevance of disclosing carbon emissions and disclosure practices; the association of risk, sustainability and liquidity and investor time horizons; and the emerging market of socially-­‐responsible investors. The researcher found that there is a positive impact on investor attitudes with regard to their investment decision-­‐making as a result of the carbon disclosure of companies. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The major themes of the research are how well sustainability reporting reflects sustainability performance and 13 companies were assessed over three years on their sustainability reporting as reflected in their sustainability reports as well as 10 in-depth interviews. For both positive and negative reasons the reports are not always a fare reflection of sustainability performance and those companies well-endowed with accolades in sustainability reporting are not necessarily leaders in performance. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:30:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carla Camargo Leal.pdf: 1468708 bytes, checksum: 8d64b5bfee57f41dc437d96bef6e4f88 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-16 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / In just over 20 years of systematic studies on climate change, there are still many questions about its causes and its effects in environmental, social and economical terms. Various global institutions are involved with the issue, including among them, national governments, companies, and non-governmental organizations. The Carbon Disclosure Project collects information annually on carbon emissions from business; the project is due to the initiative of environmental organizations, which inserted the concern about the impact of climate change over business on the agenda of institutional investors. The objective of this thesis is to investigate, among the possible factors that influence the positioning of companies and business attitudes, which are those that are associated with significantly higher or lower greenhouse gases emissions, as well as major changes, a) in proportion to the company's growth, b) regarding industry peers and c) in relation to the emissions of previous periods, taking as basis the information reported by companies to the Carbon Disclosure Project between 2006 and 2009. The potential influence factors analyzed include: a) financial aspects; b) issues related to financial risks; c) issues related to climatic risks; d) certified processes of environmental management; e) forms of reporting the information on climate change adopted by the companies; e) the location; f) the industry. Regarding the volume of emissions, the results indicated two factors of influence: the location, i.e., the fact that the company is headquartered in a country listed in Annex I of the Kyoto Protocol; and the industry, i.e., the industrial activity to which the company belongs. As for efficiency relative to sales and to industry peers, the results indicated that we can not statistically reject the influence of the following factors: a) age of assets; b) level of financial leverage; c) level of assets intangibility; d) headquarters established in a country signatory to the Kyoto Protocol. The results of the analysis of possible factors influencing the variation in emissions compared to previous periods, however, failed to identify the influence of any factor. / Em pouco mais de 20 anos de estudos sistemáticos sobre as mudanças climáticas, restam ainda muitas dúvidas sobre suas causas e seus efeitos em termos ambientais, sociais e econômicos. Diversas instituições mundiais estão envolvidas com a questão, incluindo-se dentre elas, os governos nacionais, as empresas e organizações não governanamentais. O Carbon Disclosure Project coleta anualmente informações sobre emissões de carbono das empresas e seu surgimento se deu por iniciativa de organizações ambientalistas, que inseriram a preocupação com o impacto das mudanças climáticas sobre os negócios nas agendas dos investidores institucionais. O objetivo dessa pesquisa é investigar, dentre os possíveis fatores de influência sobre o posicionamento e as ações das empresas, quais são aqueles que se associam significativamente a maiores ou menores emissões de gases de efeito estufa, bem como a maiores variações, tanto proporcionalmente ao crescimento da empresa, quanto comparativamente aos pares do setor e ainda relativamente às emissões dos períodos anteriores, tomando-se como base as informações relatadas pelas empresas ao Carbon Disclosure Project entre 2006 e 2009. Os fatores potenciais de influência analisados incluem aspectos financeiros, aspectos relacionados a riscos financeiros e climáticos, os processos certificados de gestão ambiental, as formas de publicidade das informações relativas as mudanças climáticas adotadas pelas empresas, a localização geográfica e o setor. Quanto ao volume de emissões, os resultados apontaram dois fatores de influência: o fato da empresa estar sediada em um país listado no Anexo I do Protocolo de Quioto e o setor de atividade ao qual a empresa pertence. Quanto à eficiência, relativamente a vendas e aos pares do setor, os resultados indicaram que estatisticamente não se pode rejeitar a influência dos seguintes fatores: a) idade dos ativos: b) do nível de alavancagem financeira; c) do nível de intangibilidade e d) do fato da sede estar estabelecida em país signatário do Protocolo de Quioto. Os resultados da análise de possíveis fatores de influência na variação das emissões em relação aos períodos anteriores, no entanto, não permitiram identificar influência de qualquer fator.

Research report, presented to the SBL Unisa, Midrand. / The current and future anticipated changes in the earth’s climate are a concern that has captured business’s and governments’ global attention. Climate change and its potential impacts cannot be ignored as there is ample evidence that global warming is indeed the result of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The mobile operator in Africa and the Middle East (ME) operates on continents and in parts of the world, predicted by scientists as the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The mobile operator in Africa and the Middle East is moreover an emitter of significant amounts of CO2 and this exacerbates the serious environmental climate change problem that humankind faces. This research paper addresses the Corporate Social Responsibility of African and Middle East (ME) mobile operators, and its Carbon Footprint. The main objectives of the research are to identify strategic risks and opportunities and the implications for the mobile operator and to determine its Greenhouse Gas emissions. The performance against targets and plans to reduce GHG emissions are also reviewed. The research is based on the questionnaire of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) initiative. A shortened and modified version of the CDP was designed and emailed to two major mobile telecom operators both operating in Africa and the Middle East. It is postulated that the telecommunications industry is at an inflection point where significant changes must take place in the way energy requirements are managed. This in turn could have a positive effect on reducing its carbon footprint, benefit corporate reputation and at the same time earn “green miles” in the subscriber’s minds. The research reached the main conclusion that the mobile operators’ investigated do not yet have strategies, systems and reporting in place to be counted as “good corporate citizens” concerning their environmental responsibility. The research further concluded that a proactive strategic intent is a necessity to achieve this goal. In short: The Corporate Social Responsibility of African and Middle East mobile operators indeed has a positive effect on its Carbon Footprint.

Research report, presented to the SBL Unisa, Midrand. / The current and future anticipated changes in the earth’s climate are a concern that has captured business’s and governments’ global attention. Climate change and its potential impacts cannot be ignored as there is ample evidence that global warming is indeed the result of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. The mobile operator in Africa and the Middle East (ME) operates on continents and in parts of the world, predicted by scientists as the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The mobile operator in Africa and the Middle East is moreover an emitter of significant amounts of CO2 and this exacerbates the serious environmental climate change problem that humankind faces. This research paper addresses the Corporate Social Responsibility of African and Middle East (ME) mobile operators, and its Carbon Footprint. The main objectives of the research are to identify strategic risks and opportunities and the implications for the mobile operator and to determine its Greenhouse Gas emissions. The performance against targets and plans to reduce GHG emissions are also reviewed. The research is based on the questionnaire of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) initiative. A shortened and modified version of the CDP was designed and emailed to two major mobile telecom operators both operating in Africa and the Middle East. It is postulated that the telecommunications industry is at an inflection point where significant changes must take place in the way energy requirements are managed. This in turn could have a positive effect on reducing its carbon footprint, benefit corporate reputation and at the same time earn “green miles” in the subscriber’s minds. The research reached the main conclusion that the mobile operators’ investigated do not yet have strategies, systems and reporting in place to be counted as “good corporate citizens” concerning their environmental responsibility. The research further concluded that a proactive strategic intent is a necessity to achieve this goal. In short: The Corporate Social Responsibility of African and Middle East mobile operators indeed has a positive effect on its Carbon Footprint.

Global logistics companies are increasingly disclosing carbon related information due to institutional and stakeholder pressures. Existing research, however, is limited to categorizing these pressures and their influences on corporate carbon disclosure strategies. In particular, literature to date has not distinguished between different carbon disclosure strategies and how they may have changed over time. In response, this paper: (1) proposes a framework that depicts four different carbon disclosure responses and strategies based on internal and external pressures; and (2) subsequently analyzes and compares corporate carbon disclosure strategies between 2010 and 2015. Using a sample of 39 leading global logistics companies, carbon disclosure strategies are categorized based on the analysis of 25 applied carbon management practices from Bloomberg ESG to see if carbon management practices and the associated strategies have changed. The findings show overall shifts to more transparent corporate carbon disclosure strategies between 2010 and 2015 with an increase of applied carbon management practices in both internal and external actions.

Submitted by Núcleo de Pós-Graduação Administração (npgadm@ufba.br) on 2017-08-03T20:14:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Luana Farias.pdf: 2080362 bytes, checksum: d9b8902704655778e38a19b1029ce3d6 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Maria Angela Dortas (dortas@ufba.br) on 2017-08-18T19:14:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Luana Farias.pdf: 2080362 bytes, checksum: d9b8902704655778e38a19b1029ce3d6 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-18T19:14:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Luana Farias.pdf: 2080362 bytes, checksum: d9b8902704655778e38a19b1029ce3d6 (MD5) / A mudança climática constitui-se num desafio para as empresas, governos e sociedade civil,exigindo esforços de cooperação entre todos no sentido de buscar alternativas possíveis para a mitigação e/ou adaptação ao fenômeno. O Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) é uma das iniciativas desenvolvidas pelo setor privado para responder ao problema ambiental global das mudanças climáticas – cujo objetivo é facilitar o diálogo entre investidores e corporações, através do disclosure (abertura) de informação relativas às estratégias corporativas para enfrentar as mudanças climáticas. O CDP é uma organização não governamental internacional, que estabeleceu cinco programas institucionais de carbon disclosure corporativo, a saber: Cidades, Contratos, Cadeia de Suprimentos, Divulgação da Água e Investidores. O programa CDP\Investidores no Brasil foi o objeto de estudo desta pesquisa. Criado em 2000, esse programa vem desempenhando papel importante na evidenciação socioambiental relacionada à mudança climática, colocando as informações relevantes no centro dos negócios e decisões de investimento, visando aumentar a transparência em torno dos riscos de investimentos e das oportunidades comerciais em torno de uma economia de baixo carbono. Assim, o referencial conceitual reuniu contribuições teóricas sobre a Teoria Institucional, Legitimidade Organizacional, pesquisas sobre evidenciação socioambiental e as principais respostas das empresas para o problema das mudanças climáticas, incluindo o CDP. Em face do exposto, esta pesquisa investigou as tipologias de estratégias de legitimidade de Suchman (1995) mais evidenciadas pelas empresas brasileiras destinatárias do pedido do Carbon Disclosure Project no período de 2006 a 2010. Adotou-se, portanto, pesquisa exploratória e descritiva, com abordagem qualitativa baseada em análise de conteúdo. Metodologicamente, a pesquisa foi dividida em duas fases operacionais, contendo respectivamente análise dos relatórios do CDP no período de 2006 a 2010 e estudo de dez casos empíricos. A primeira fase constatou um elevado índice de evidenciação das estratégias de legitimidade na análise de conteúdo dos relatórios do CDP, perfazendo um total de 3245 citações. Dentre as tipologias de Suchman,as mais evidenciadas foram: estratégia pragmática (2135), o item cooptar integrantes (783)e o critério ganho (2627). Já na segunda fase analisaram-se as estratégias de legitimidade em dez casos empíricos. Os resultados demonstraram que a legitimidade pragmática e o critério ganho obtiveram o maior número de citações, respectivamente 375 e 500. O item mais citado em todos os casos empíricos foi responder as necessidades dos stakeholders, com 335 evidenciações. Constatou-se a presença de todas as estratégias de legitimidade de Suchman (1995), nas duas fases da pesquisa. A estratégia pragmática e o critério ganho destacaram-se com o maior número de evidenciação na pesquisa. Deste modo, pôde inferir que o programa CDP\Investors-Brasil vem sendo considerado pelas empresas brasileiras como um mecanismo para obter aceitação e legitimidade perante as suas partes interessadas. / The climate changes offer a challenge to companies, governments and civil society, demanding cooperation efforts in aiming to seek possible alternatives to the mitigation and/or adaptation to the phenomenon. Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is one of the initiatives developed by the private sector to answer to the global ambiental problem of climate changes – it aims to facilitate dialogue between investors and corporations through disclosure of information pertaining to corporate strategies to face the climate changes. CDP is an international nongovernmental organization which established five institutional programs of corporate carbon disclosure, as follows: Cities, Public Procurement, Supply Chain, Water Disclosure, and Investor. This research has the CDP/Investor in Brazil as object of study. Created in 2000, this program has been playing an important role in socioambiental diffusion of climate changes, putting the relevant information at the center of business and investment decisions, aiming to promote transparency on investment risks and commercial opportunities in a low-carbon economy. As such, the conceptual references include theoretical contributions on Institutional Theory, Organizational Legitimacy, research on socioambiental diffusion and the main corporate response to the climate change problem, including CDP. This research investigated, among Suchman's typology of legitimacy strategies (1995), which strategies were more employed by brazilian companies respondent to Carbon Disclosure Project from 2006 to 2010. Exploratory and descriptive research were adopted, using a qualitative approach based on content analysis. Methodologically, the research was divided in two operational stages, respectivelly containing an analysis of CDP reports from 2006 to 2010 and a study of ten illustrative cases. The first stage detected a high level of evincement of legitimacy strategies at the content analysis of CDP reports, summing 3245 quotations. Among Suchman's typologies, the more evident were: pragmatic strategy (2135), the co-optate constituents item (783) and the benefit criterion (2627). As for the second stage, the legitimacy strategies were analysed in ten illustrative cases. Results showed that pragmatic legitimacy and the benefit criterion obtained the highest number of quotations, respectivelly 375 and 500. The most quoted item in all illustrative cases was to react to the stakeholder's necessities, with 335 evincements. All legitimacy strategies typified by Suchman (1995) were noticed as present in both stages of the research. The pragmatic strategy and the benefit criterion stood out as the higher evincement rates in the research. As such, one can infer that the program CDP/Investor-Brazil has been considered by brazilian companies as a mechanism to obtain acceptance and legitimacy before its stakeholders.

In 2014, only 48% of S&P companies scored high-performance band B ratings and above in their Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reports to attract the interest of institutional investors holding U.S. $92 trillion plus assets under management. This multiple case study explored the business leaders' strategic decisions to improve the performance band ratings in the companies' CDP reports. The conceptual framework for this study was stakeholder theory, which suggests that businesses should incorporate the interest of institutional investors to minimize the climate-related risks that could affect their investment decisions. The target population for this study was business leaders from S&P 500 companies in the eastern United States who have experience in making strategic decisions to improve performance band ratings in the CDP reports. Data collection included semistructured face-to-face interviews with 4 business leaders and an exploration of company archival documents related to carbon management. Using Yin's data analysis method 5 themes emerged: governance, risk management, target and initiatives, measurement and verification, and transparency and disclosure. These themes highlighted companies' governing strategies for better carbon management, which are essential in achieving better performance band ratings in the CDP reports to attract the interest of intuitional investors. Better carbon management by S&P 500 companies will facilitate a positive social change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions that are detrimental to human health and well-being of its stakeholders.

Submitted by infopei ufba (infopei@ufba.br) on 2018-08-06T15:29:20Z No. of bitstreams: 1 andre_luis_rocha_de_souza.pdf: 4696426 bytes, checksum: a2f1b902b2a2cf83de1679fcdea2475d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Vanessa Reis (vanessa.jamile@ufba.br) on 2018-08-27T12:00:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 andre_luis_rocha_de_souza.pdf: 4696426 bytes, checksum: a2f1b902b2a2cf83de1679fcdea2475d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-27T12:00:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 andre_luis_rocha_de_souza.pdf: 4696426 bytes, checksum: a2f1b902b2a2cf83de1679fcdea2475d (MD5) / A presente pesquisa teve por objetivo geral analisar as iniciativas evidenciadas pelas empresas da carteira teórica do Índice Carbono Eficiente - ICO2 da BM&FBOVESPA para responder ao fenômeno das mudanças climáticas e verificar a relação entre a participação das empresas no ICO2, o retorno de suas ações e a sensibilidade ao risco de mercado. Para o alcance desse objetivo, realizou-se uma pesquisa exploratória, com natureza bibliográfica e documental, a partir de uma abordagem analítica e descritiva. A estratégia metodológica empregada na pesquisa foi a de estudo qualitativo, nesta tese denominado de Estudo “A”, a partir de estudos de casos múltiplos, e de estudos quantitativos, nesta tese denominados de Estudo “B” e Estudo “C”, a partir de técnicas estatística, por meio de regressões em painéis. Os dados secundários foram coletados por meio dos relatórios de sustentabilidade, relatórios anuais e de sustentabilidade (apresentados conjuntamente), inventários de emissões e questionários do Carbon Disclosure Project – CDP, respondidos pelas empresas, bem como através de consulta à base de dados Economática para a extração da cotação mensal dos preços das ações das empresas e os pontos mensais do Ibovespa. Já os dados primários foram obtidos por meio de entrevistas com gestores representantes das empresas. Para a realização dos respectivos estudos utilizou-se como unidade de análise o ICO2, cujo período analisado foi o compreendido entre 2011 a 2014. Os resultados evidenciaram que as principais iniciativas divulgadas pelas empresas da carteira teórica do ICO2 da BM&FBOVESPA para responder ao fenômeno das mudanças climáticas foram o CDP, o Programa Brasileiro GHG Protocol e o Índice de Sustentabilidade Empresarial (ISE). O grupo de empresas que ingressaram no ICO2 não apresentaram retornos das ações superiores se comparado com o grupo de empresas que não ingressaram no ICO2, mas apresentaram menor sensibilidade ao risco de mercado do que o grupo de empresas que não ingressaram no índice; os retornos das ações e a sensibilidade ao risco de mercado das empresas após admissão na carteira teórica do ICO2 não apresentaram alterações positivas, face ao período de pré-admissão. Por fim, conclui-se que as empresas têm aumentado a preocupação na qualidade e no direcionamento de informações relacionadas com as suas práticas de gestão, priorizando para tal alguns stakeholders. Os principais stakeholders priorizados pelas empresas nesse processo, identificados nessa pesquisa, foram os investidores, acionistas, além do governo em função dos riscos regulatórios e os clientes dado a mudança de comportamento nos últimos anos.

Although stakeholder theory is widely accepted in environmental disclosure research, empirical evidence about the role of stakeholders in firms’ disclosure is still scarce. The authors address this issue for a setting of carbon disclosure. Our international sample comprises the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Global 500, S&P 500, and FTSE 350 reports from 2008 to 2011, resulting in a total of 1,120 firms with 3,631 firm-year observations. The authors apply Tobit regressions to analyze the relationship between carbon disclosure and the relevance of the following stakeholder groups: government, general public, media, employees, and customers. Our results confirm that in addition to carbon performance, all stakeholders are associated with carbon disclosure. Only one stakeholder group (government) acts as a moderator for the relationship between carbon performance and carbon disclosure. Furthermore, the authors find that carbon performance but not the affiliation to a carbon-intensive industry acts as a moderator between stakeholder relevance and carbon disclosure.