| dc.description.abstract | In April 2008, Terence O’Rourke, Managing Partner of KPMG in Ireland spoke at a
presentation on Accounting for Sustainability to the Annual Conference of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland (ICAI) and said that,
“The phrase ‘Accounting for Sustainability’, is slowly but surely starting to
enter the lexicon of business. The environmental impact of business has been
widely recognised for decades; however it’s only in the recent past that any
attempt has been made to measure the real social and environmental cost of
the continued depletion of scarce resources such as oil and water.”
ICAI (2008)
Environmental reporting is primarily concerned with companies reporting on the
impact it operations have on the environment and how the company is reducing this
impact.
This research found that the nature of environmental disclosures of listed companies
on the Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) within the Food and Drinks Sector are not as
comprehensive as those of other Sectors of the ISE. Furthermore, this research found
that the extent of their environmental disclosures goes no further than environmental
mission statements, small amounts of quantitative data, and listed accreditations and
certificates companies had received with regard to their environmental practices.
Despite the number of companies within this Sector disclosing environmental
information within their Annual Reports increasing over the past eight years, the
quality of information disclosed has not greatly improved.
Additionally, this dissertation investigated the perceptions of senior management of
the ISE listed companies within the Food and Drinks Sector with regard to
environmental reporting. The researcher made recommendations as to how companies
and the Government can increase and improve the level of environmental reporting,
both within the Food and Drinks Sector and in other Sectors of the ISE. The
researcher in light of the findings, also made suggestions for further areas of research. | en |
