Degree of Environmental Disclosure by Companies from Industries Potentially Aggressive to the Environment

Resumen

This study compares the degree of environmental disclosure by Brazilian companies whose respective activities have been classified, according to Law 10,165/2000, as .having high, medium and low environmental impact. To measure the degree of environmental disclosure, a lexical analysis was carried out of the reports provided in the annual financial statements of a sample of 114 companies for the 2012-2014 period. To this end, a group of key words and expressions related to environmental disclosure was selected, based on the literature, and an index of environmental disclosure (EDI) was developed. In order to verify whether a greater degree of environmental disclosure is associated with greater potential for environmental impact, mean comparison tests were carried out of the groups classified, respectively, as having high, medium and low environmental impact. Findings suggest that there is, indeed, greater environmental disclosure on the part of companies considered to have greater potential for pollution. These results point to a possible enforcement effect by the legislation in force that impels companies with greater pollution potential to disclose a higher level of environmental information.