Purpose: To determine whether to entrust the EU to create a new non-financial reporting framework or endorse the extant reporting framework developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), this study explored whether the mandatory implementation of the EU Directive positively impacted the GRI-based environmental disclosure. Design/Methodology/Approach: We compared the pre-and post-EU Directive environmental disclosure of 16 Italian environmentally sensitive companies. We employed an extended coding scheme and developed a unique scoring system to compare the quantitative and qualitative changes in environmental disclosure. Findings: The analysis showed that the quantity of environmental disclosure increased after the mandatory EU Directive adoption. The most significant change was observed regarding the disclosure topics explicitly required by the Italian legislature. Additionally, disclosure of soft information continued to prevail over that of hard information in the post-Directive period. While the Directive boosted the level of adherence to GRI standards, Italian companies disclosed information that could be easily mimicked (soft) instead of objective measures that could be verified (hard). In light of this evidence, the endorsement of extant GRI standards could be a valuable option for enhancing the comparability and transparency of environmental disclosure. Originality: This study employed an original extended coding system and proposed related environmental disclosure indexes that allow monitoring changes in environmental disclosure over time. This study is one of the few that justifies the significant impact of regulation (here the EU Directive) on the increase in environmental disclosure and that uses hard and soft information typology to examine the quality of environmental disclosure.

The impact of the EU non-financial information directive on environmental disclosure: evidence from Italian environmentally sensitive industries.

PAPA M
;
CARRASSI M;MUSERRA A. L.;
2022-01-01

Abstract

Purpose: To determine whether to entrust the EU to create a new non-financial reporting framework or endorse the extant reporting framework developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), this study explored whether the mandatory implementation of the EU Directive positively impacted the GRI-based environmental disclosure. Design/Methodology/Approach: We compared the pre-and post-EU Directive environmental disclosure of 16 Italian environmentally sensitive companies. We employed an extended coding scheme and developed a unique scoring system to compare the quantitative and qualitative changes in environmental disclosure. Findings: The analysis showed that the quantity of environmental disclosure increased after the mandatory EU Directive adoption. The most significant change was observed regarding the disclosure topics explicitly required by the Italian legislature. Additionally, disclosure of soft information continued to prevail over that of hard information in the post-Directive period. While the Directive boosted the level of adherence to GRI standards, Italian companies disclosed information that could be easily mimicked (soft) instead of objective measures that could be verified (hard). In light of this evidence, the endorsement of extant GRI standards could be a valuable option for enhancing the comparability and transparency of environmental disclosure. Originality: This study employed an original extended coding system and proposed related environmental disclosure indexes that allow monitoring changes in environmental disclosure over time. This study is one of the few that justifies the significant impact of regulation (here the EU Directive) on the increase in environmental disclosure and that uses hard and soft information typology to examine the quality of environmental disclosure.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11586/390259
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