The environmental work of companies has become an incredibly important factor in achieving reduced levels of environmental pollution. For companies the work on environmental issues began in the 1980s. During this time companies also began to show interest for the personnel, an interest that was shown in the form of attempts to disclose personnel information in economics. Earlier this information was separated from the financial information, despite the fact that the revenues are created by the employees. The purpose of this paper is to examine how well companies with a notification or a permit today account for environmental- and personnel information in their director’s report. Issues that this paper will address are what laws that exists concerning the topic, why it is important to account for environmental- and personnel in formation, how well the laws are followed, and if any difference can be distinguished depending on the size of the company. By creating a quantitative study of all annual reports on the Stockholm Stock Exchange Mid- and Large Cap the selection problems was escaped. The annual reports have been found on the companies boards have helped as a control function to investigate if the companies were engaged in any notification- or permit activity. The study has had a few criteria depending on what has been considered relevant, given the rules and recommendations contained in the environmental- and personnel accounting. The conclusion declared that the laws on environmental- and personnel information are relatively diffuse. For more tangible information companies need to look in the Accounting Standards Board's recommendations and proposition 2004/05:68 about personnel information. Environmental- and personnel information is important particularly in the view of stakeholders' interests and requirements. Environmental information has improved slightly in comparison with previous studies and the personnel information has improved considerably.This is explained by the fact that a legal requirement on the personnel information has become final and that different and relatively larger firms have been investigated. Companies registered on Large Cap has significantly better performance than Mid Cap in terms of both environmental- and personnel information.

<p>The environmental work of companies has become an incredibly important factor in achieving reduced levels of environmental pollution. For companies the work on environmental issues began in the 1980s. During this time companies also began to show interest for the personnel, an interest that was shown in the form of attempts to disclose personnel information in economics. Earlier this information was separated from the financial information, despite the fact that the revenues are created by the employees.</p><p>The purpose of this paper is to examine how well companies with a notification or a permit today account for environmental- and personnel information in their director’s report. Issues that this paper will address are what laws that exists concerning the topic, why it is important to account for environmental- and personnel in formation, how well the laws are followed, and if any difference can be distinguished depending on the size of the company.</p><p>By creating a quantitative study of all annual reports on the Stockholm Stock Exchange Mid- and Large Cap the selection problems was escaped. The annual reports have been found on the companies boards have helped as a control function to investigate if the companies were engaged in any notification- or permit activity. The study has had a few criteria depending on what has been considered relevant, given the rules and recommendations contained in the environmental- and personnel accounting.</p><p>The conclusion declared that the laws on environmental- and personnel information are relatively diffuse. For more tangible information companies need to look in the Accounting Standards Board's recommendations and proposition 2004/05:68 about personnel information. Environmental- and personnel information is important particularly in the view of stakeholders' interests and requirements. Environmental information has improved slightly in comparison with previous studies and the personnel information has improved considerably.This is explained by the fact that a legal requirement on the personnel information has become final and that different and relatively larger firms have been investigated. Companies registered on Large Cap has significantly better performance than Mid Cap in terms of both environmental- and personnel information.</p>

<p>Bakgrund:</p><p>Miljön är ett av de hetaste ämnena i världen för tillfället och uppe på mången agenda. De flesta företagsledare, politiker samt konsumenter har insett att vi inte kan fortsätta leva på samma sätt som vi gör nu, men ändå fortsätter användandet av miljöförstörande ämnen. En av miljöredovisningens uppgifter är att sätta press på företagen att följa gällande miljölagstiftning samt uppmärksamma allmänheten om pro-blemet så att de därigenom har tillräcklig kunskap om företagen och deras verksamhet för att kunna göra genomtänkta val. För att utveckla företagens sociala ansvar och bidra till en högre medvetenhet inom fö-retaget och bland intressenter har även personalfrågor inkluderats som obligatorisk information som ska lämnas i förvaltningsberättelsen.</p><p>Syfte:</p><p>Att beskriva och förklara i vilken utsträckning som tillståndspliktiga bo-lag i Jönköpings län följer aktuell lagstiftning och normgivning avseen-de miljöinformation och personalfrågor i förvaltningsberättelsen.</p><p>Metod:</p><p>En kvantitativ studie genomfördes på 199 tillståndspliktiga företag i Jönköpings län. Företagens förvaltningsberättelser lästes igenom för att kontrollera hur pass väl information om miljö samt personal redovisa-des. Karaktärer hos företagen såsom storlek, val av revisionsbyrå och bransch testades för att söka samband och hitta orsaker till mängden information om miljö och personal som redovisades.</p><p>Slutsats:</p><p>Studien visar att miljöredovisningen bland tillståndspliktiga företag i Jönköpings län inte hade utvecklats nämnvärt mellan 2003 och 2005. Författarna finner också att personalinformationen i samma årsredo-visningar är mycket dåligt redovisade, intressentteorin och legitimitets-teorin till trots. Författarna anser att för att en lagstiftning ska vara ef-fektiv och lagarna ska följas måste det till en uppföljning på hur pass väl detta görs. Som det är idag så verkar det inte finnas någon effektiv kontroll av redovisningen av mjuka frågor. I fall revisorerna inte sätter press på företagen eller i fall ingen kontroll sker så hämmas utveckling. Ett sätt att motverka detta kan vara att utarbeta sanktioner mot de före-tag som inte uppfyller kraven, effektiva sådana saknas bevisligen idag.</p> / <p>Background:</p><p>The environment is one of the most discussed topics in the world to-day. Their is a widespread notion among corporate leaders, politicians and consumers that our way of living is unsustainable, but still we keep on exhausting the resources of the world at a steady pace. One of the main purposes of environmental disclosures in companies annual re-ports is to put pressure on the companies to comply with environ-mental regulations and to inform society in large about the effects that companies have on the environment. This is to provide the society with enough knowledge about companies and their activities to be able to make informed decisions. In order to evolve the social responsibility of Swedish companies, and at the same time add to the companies’ and society´s awareness, personnel information has been made compulsory to include in the report of the directors.</p><p>Purpose:</p><p>To describe and explain to which extent that companies with obligation to report according to the Swedish Environmental Code in the region of Jönköping complies with contemporary regulations and norms when it comes to environmental and personnel information in the director’s report.</p><p>Method: A quantitative study was conducted on 199 companies with obligation to report according to the Swedish Environmental Code in the region of Jönköping. The director’s reports of the companies’ annual reports where examined to see how well information about environmental in-fluence and their personnel were accounted for. Company factors such as size, choice of accountancy firm and industry were brought into the study to search for connections and reasons to the amount of informa-tion about environmental and personnel included in the annual reports.</p><p>Conclusions:</p><p>The study shows that the environmental accounting in the director’s report among these companies had not evolved significally between 2003 and 2005. The study also find that information about personnel is poorly accounted for. The authors argues that in order for any legisla-tion of this sort to be effiecent, there has to be a close follow up on how well the legislation is followed. As it is today this does not seem to be the case when it comes to accounting for this kind of information. Stakeholders and accountants need to put pressure on the companies or sanctions need to be implemented in order to secure that more and better information is included in the annual reports.</p>

Bakgrund: Miljön är ett av de hetaste ämnena i världen för tillfället och uppe på mången agenda. De flesta företagsledare, politiker samt konsumenter har insett att vi inte kan fortsätta leva på samma sätt som vi gör nu, men ändå fortsätter användandet av miljöförstörande ämnen. En av miljöredovisningens uppgifter är att sätta press på företagen att följa gällande miljölagstiftning samt uppmärksamma allmänheten om pro-blemet så att de därigenom har tillräcklig kunskap om företagen och deras verksamhet för att kunna göra genomtänkta val. För att utveckla företagens sociala ansvar och bidra till en högre medvetenhet inom fö-retaget och bland intressenter har även personalfrågor inkluderats som obligatorisk information som ska lämnas i förvaltningsberättelsen. Syfte: Att beskriva och förklara i vilken utsträckning som tillståndspliktiga bo-lag i Jönköpings län följer aktuell lagstiftning och normgivning avseen-de miljöinformation och personalfrågor i förvaltningsberättelsen. Metod: En kvantitativ studie genomfördes på 199 tillståndspliktiga företag i Jönköpings län. Företagens förvaltningsberättelser lästes igenom för att kontrollera hur pass väl information om miljö samt personal redovisa-des. Karaktärer hos företagen såsom storlek, val av revisionsbyrå och bransch testades för att söka samband och hitta orsaker till mängden information om miljö och personal som redovisades. Slutsats: Studien visar att miljöredovisningen bland tillståndspliktiga företag i Jönköpings län inte hade utvecklats nämnvärt mellan 2003 och 2005. Författarna finner också att personalinformationen i samma årsredo-visningar är mycket dåligt redovisade, intressentteorin och legitimitets-teorin till trots. Författarna anser att för att en lagstiftning ska vara ef-fektiv och lagarna ska följas måste det till en uppföljning på hur pass väl detta görs. Som det är idag så verkar det inte finnas någon effektiv kontroll av redovisningen av mjuka frågor. I fall revisorerna inte sätter press på företagen eller i fall ingen kontroll sker så hämmas utveckling. Ett sätt att motverka detta kan vara att utarbeta sanktioner mot de före-tag som inte uppfyller kraven, effektiva sådana saknas bevisligen idag. / Background: The environment is one of the most discussed topics in the world to-day. Their is a widespread notion among corporate leaders, politicians and consumers that our way of living is unsustainable, but still we keep on exhausting the resources of the world at a steady pace. One of the main purposes of environmental disclosures in companies annual re-ports is to put pressure on the companies to comply with environ-mental regulations and to inform society in large about the effects that companies have on the environment. This is to provide the society with enough knowledge about companies and their activities to be able to make informed decisions. In order to evolve the social responsibility of Swedish companies, and at the same time add to the companies’ and society´s awareness, personnel information has been made compulsory to include in the report of the directors. Purpose: To describe and explain to which extent that companies with obligation to report according to the Swedish Environmental Code in the region of Jönköping complies with contemporary regulations and norms when it comes to environmental and personnel information in the director’s report. Method: A quantitative study was conducted on 199 companies with obligation to report according to the Swedish Environmental Code in the region of Jönköping. The director’s reports of the companies’ annual reports where examined to see how well information about environmental in-fluence and their personnel were accounted for. Company factors such as size, choice of accountancy firm and industry were brought into the study to search for connections and reasons to the amount of informa-tion about environmental and personnel included in the annual reports. Conclusions: The study shows that the environmental accounting in the director’s report among these companies had not evolved significally between 2003 and 2005. The study also find that information about personnel is poorly accounted for. The authors argues that in order for any legisla-tion of this sort to be effiecent, there has to be a close follow up on how well the legislation is followed. As it is today this does not seem to be the case when it comes to accounting for this kind of information. Stakeholders and accountants need to put pressure on the companies or sanctions need to be implemented in order to secure that more and better information is included in the annual reports.