Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen der Umweltberichterstattung und der ökonomischen Leistung von Unternehmen. Dazu erfolgt nach einer Abgrenzung der wesentlichen Fachbegriffe dieser Arbeit eine umfassende Darstellung des aktuellen Standes der Forschung zu diesem Thema. Die Ergebnisse dieser Recherche verdeutlichen, dass auf dem Gebiet bereits vielfach mit unterschiedlichen Ergebnissen geforscht wurde. Einige Studien konnten einen positiven Zusammenhang zwischen der Umweltberichterstattung und der ökonomischen Leistung von Unternehmen nachweisen, viele andere hingegen nicht. Mit Hilfe dieser Ergebnisse wird eine Analyse des Zusammenhangs von Umweltberichterstattung und ökonomischer Leistung der Unternehmen des Good Company Rankings (GCR) vorbereitet. Dazu werden zu den Bewertungen des Rankings entsprechende ökonomische Kenngrößen ermittelt, welche die ökonomische Leistung der Unternehmen des GCR widerspiegeln. Anschließend wird der zu untersuchende Zusammenhang anhand linearer Einfach- und Mehrfachregressionen geprüft. Die Ergebnisse dieser Regressionen verdeutlichen, dass sich eine „gute“ ökonomische Leistung der Unternehmen positiv auf deren Umweltberichterstattung auswirken kann. Zudem kann auch eine quantitativ und qualitativ umfangreiche Umweltberichterstattung eine Steigerung der ökonomischen Leistung begründen. Diese kann unmittelbar nach Veröffentlichung der Berichterstattung erfolgen oder zeitversetzt in späteren Perioden.

Mit der zunehmenden Berichterstattung der Unternehmen erfolgt ein ebenso rasant ansteigender Trend die eigene Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung durch externe Dritte bestätigen zu lassen. Untersucht wird der Stand der Prüfung der Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung mittels Zusammenführung und Diskussion von 29 thematisch relevanten Studien aus dem Zeitraum 1996 bis 2009. Neben den Fragen nach Treibern und Hemmnissen der Entscheidung für eine Prüfung der Berichterstattung werden die Bedeutung und der Nutzen sowie die Charakterisierung der Prüfung (Prüfungstiefe, Prüfungsstandards, Prüfungsvermerk) und die Einflussfaktoren (Branche, Land, Prüfungsanbieter, Unternehmensgröße) auf die Prüfung eruiert. Frage-stellungen und Implikationen aus dem empirischen Forschungsstand finden Eingang in die empirische Untersuchung. Geleitet wird die Analyse von 86 Nachhaltigkeitsberichten des Energiesektors aus der GRI-Online-Berichtsdatenbank von der Fragestellung, ob die externe Prüfung der Berichterstattung einen Einfluss auf die qualitative und quantitative Ausgestaltung des Nachhaltigkeitsberichts ausübt und sie als Qualitätssignal für die Stakeholder relevant ist. Bewertet wird der Stand der Berichterstattung der ökologischen Umweltleistungsin-dikatoren mittels des GRI-basierten Bewertungsschemas des LEHRSTUHLS FÜR BETRIEBLICHE UMWELTÖKONOMIE der TU DRESDEN. Die Unterschiede in der Berichtsqualität und –quantität zwischen verifizierten und nicht verifizierten Nachhaltigkeitsberichten werden anhand der Varianzanalyse als signifikant und praktische bedeutsam geprüft. Verifizierte Nachhaltigkeitsberichte weisen eine bessere Performance auf als nicht verifizierte Berichte.

Two beliefs drove this dissertation to be centered on the analysis of the UK corporate disclosure (CD) related to global climate change (GCC). Firstly, GCC is the most significant environmental concern of our current age (IPCC, 2001; Stern, 2006; IPCC, 2007). Secondly, CD could illustrate the values of organizations and possibilities for changing organizations’ responsibility regarding to GCC (Gray et al., 1996; Bebbington and Larrinaga-Gonzalez, 2008; Bebbington et al., 2009). This study utilizes content analysis as its principal method and seeks to achieve its goal by way of a two investigations. The first investigation focuses on disclosures made by direct participants’ (DP) in the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS). It captures GCC disclosures from both stand alone (SA) and annual reports (AR) during 2000 - 2004. This part of the study explores if joining the UK ETS changed GCC disclosures. This is tested on both a longitudinal and matched pair (MP) basis. An analysis using institutional theory suggests that instruments of environmental policy may influence GCC disclosures. Results showed that DP increased GCC disclosure, especially in the AR where mainstream business rationale is accepted. MP disclosures, in contrast, focus on the SA media and on different topics than DP disclosures. AR and SA both contain CD, but in this study they showed different patterns of disclosure and therefore may constitute different disclosure media. The second investigation suggests a method to compare GCC disclosure for a sample of DP and MP, using three different media: carbon disclosure project (CDP), AR and SA. Analysis shows that GCC disclosure did not provide sufficient information to compare GCC initiatives and disclosures. Despite the fact that organizations have similar characteristics in terms of sector, size and origin country, they showed different views on GCC issues and this may partially explain differences on GCC initiatives and disclosure.

Society is increasingly calling for organisations to demonstrate corporate social responsibility (CSR). To fulfil this demand, organisations need to be accountable, democratic and transparent to their stakeholders. This can be achieved using a number of tools including communication about the environmental, social and economic impacts of an organisation’s actions and activities. Yet despite the importance of communicating environmental information, and society’s heightened environmental awareness, organisations are still demonstrating an insufficient commitment to environmental reporting, continuing their reluctance to be open and accountable about their environmental impacts. This suggests organisations currently have little understanding of why they should report, what they should report and/or how they should report. For environmental reporting progress to be achieved it is important that we have knowledge of how various factors influence voluntary environmental reporting engagement. This research, in contributing to and extending the body of environmental reporting knowledge, aims to provide an understanding of the Why, What and How of voluntary environmental reporting by specifically examining: why organisations should, and why organisations do, voluntarily report environmental information; what environmental information organisations should, and what environmental information organisations do, voluntarily report; and how organisations should, and how organisations do, voluntarily report environmental information. In using a combination of research methodologies this research extends prior CSR reporting studies – closing the gap between voluntary environmental reporting practice and theory, providing better insights into the underlying reasons and motivations for voluntary environmental reporting, and providing improved knowledge of the considerations made by companies as part of the voluntary environmental reporting process. In doing so, this research presents a more recent examination of voluntary environmental reporting in the annual reports of New Zealand and Australian publicly listed companies. Aspects of voluntary environmental reporting that have not been extensively examined before, particularly in Australasia, are examined. These include a focus on content-quality (as opposed to reporting quantity), an investigation of the effect of public pressure (using a combination of three proxy measures), and, through the use of qualitative research, an expansion of the insights obtained from quantitative data. This research finds that New Zealand and Australian publicly listed companies continue to have an insufficient and incorrect understanding of why they should report, what they should report and/or how they should voluntarily report environmental information. This deficient understanding results in voluntary environmental reporting in their annual reports which is inadequate – the reporting lacks meaning and purpose (i.e. has form but little or no substance), and reflects managers’ incorrect perceptions about the environmental impact of their company’s actions and activities. As a result voluntary environmental reporting in the annual reports of New Zealand and Australian publicly listed companies fails to “… give an understanding, which is not misleading, …” of the environmental consequences of an organisation’s actions and activities (adapted from Alexander & Jermakowicz, 2006, p. 132), providing little accountability to stakeholders, and serving neither external stakeholders nor those reporting well. As the demand for organisations to demonstrate accountability to stakeholders continues to increase over time it is important to develop informed environmental reporting guidance and undertake further examinations of the Why, What and How of environmental reporting.

En se focalisant sur 38 grands groupes cotés au CAC 40, de 2007 à 2013, la question de l’affichage environnemental et de sa valorisation sur le marché est envisagée dans une étude exploratoire selon les axes suivants : Le premier consiste à identifier l’existence d’un effet sur les cours de bourse d’une diffusion publique d’éléments afférant à la stratégie environnementale, en faisant appel aux études d’événements. La publication du document de référence a ainsi retenu toute l’attention. Puis, il apparaît essentiel de caractériser cette information : L’objectif n’est pas d’évaluer la qualité de la politique adoptée, mais d’étudier et évaluer les comportements en la matière, en mobilisant une analyse de contenu pour un total de 228 documents de référence. Une méthodologie de scoring a été adoptée, afin d’établir un indice de diffusion d’informations environnementales, sur la base d’un référentiel reconnu internationalement et pertinent, le Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Enfin, une modélisation permet de tester la relation entre la réaction observée sur le marché financier et l’information environnementale. Sur la pratique de diffusion d’informations environnementales, les comportements des entreprises de l’échantillon se sont améliorés tant sur la nature des informations divulguées que sur les pratiques globales : Elles sont de plus en plus transparente sur la base des critères environnementaux définis par le GRI. A la publication du document de référence, des rentabilités anormales cumulées sont observées et significatives. Les résultats laissent apparaître que le pouvoir explicatif de la communication environnementale est au demeurant plus important que des variables financières, tel que la variation de l’effet de levier, bien qu’il soit affecté au cours du temps. / By focusing on 38 stock marketed companies from the CAC 40 from 2007 to 2013, to question on the link between environmental published information and market valorization is at stake. The response is organized trough 3 main objectives by performing an explorative analysis: First, one may identify an impact from the disclosure about environmental practices on the stock market thank to the event study methodology. Publication of the annual registration documents hold attention in order to appreciate public environmental communication: Thus, the issue is not to evaluate firms’ policies but to understand how do they behave concerning their communication, by performing a content analysis based on 228 registration documents. Then, one may use an innovative data sources through the Global reporting initiative (GRI) standardized items to explore and to score the published information concerning environmental practices, leading to build an disclosure index. Last, one may test the relationship between the disclosure practices and the impact of this disclosure on the stock market. Companies tend to be more and more transparent according to the GRI, as on the items itself than on their whole practices. When they circulate their registration documents, there are significant cumulated abnormal returns. As a result, one may observe that disclosure on environmental practices explains more the abnormal returns than financial datas, as the leverage variation, even if this effect tend to be less and less important with time.

Recently, bankers have come to realise that banking operations, especially corporate lending, affect and are affected by the natural environment and that consequently, the banks might have an important role to play in helping to raise environmental standards. Although the environment presents significant risks to banks, in particular environmental credit risk, it also perhaps presents profitable opportunities. Stricter environmental regulations have forced companies to invest in environmentally friendly technologies and pollution control measures and in tum generated lending opportunities for bankers. This research examines the corporate practices of three of the four dominant banks in South Africa with respect to the environment, focusing on issues of climate change and environmental risk management by way of reporting and disclosure to all stakeholders. The emphasis on environmental reporting by South African banks has been reinforced by the latest release of the King III Report on Corporate Governance in South Africa. Global governance requires that the triple-bottom line should be applied in all corporate undertakings due to globalisation and trade liberalisation; however, the banking sector has responded poorly to the clarion call. The false view that the banks have no significant relationship with environmental degradation is being disproved. Environmental management is a huge and massive reconstruction of what has gone wrong with nature by human influence. The South African banks have had to face with the challenging tasks of reporting on the direct and mostly the indirect impacts of their environmental activities. Based on the three sampled banks which incidentally had greater percentages of the market capitalizations, the banks have fairly performed in environmental reporting. For example, Standard Bank (SA) Ltd has just signed the Equator Principles in 2007 implying corporate lending was done in 2007 without any respect to environmental impact assessments by corporate borrowers. Consequently, environmental reporting was not done to facilitate informed decision-making by stakeholders mostly shareholders and the communities where borrowers tun businesses. The objective of this research study is to investigate the extent and quantity of/voluntary environmental disclosures in the annual and sustainability reports of the banks listed on Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The periods examined were those subsequent to the release of the Exposure Draft Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI) issued in 1999. Using content analysis to focus on the environmental aspects, the research study compared three annual reports and three sustainability reports of 2007 year for the three sampled banks in order to evaluate reporting practices in the period surrounding this intervention. The results suggest a trend to triple bottom-line reporting and the extent and quantity of environmental information, albeit in specific categories.