Relationship Between Environmental Reports and Environmental Performance: A case of the Processing Industry in the Republic of Slovenia

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Environmental protection issues faced by companies constitute a challenging research topic. The main objective of the study was to research if companies’ environmental performance relates to the quality of information contained in the environmental reports.
Methods: In order to assess the environmental performance of companies involved we develop the Environmental Performance Index based on the Slovenian Environment Agency’s data on emissions in air, water and waste. We measured the correlation between the Environmental Performance Index and quality of environmental reporting using Spearman’s correlation coefficient.
Results and Conclusion: The results of our analyses revealed that there is no significant correlation between companies’ environmental performance and the quality of their environmental reporting. However, the reasons for the obtained result can be at least partially attributed to the low quality level of analysed environmental reports. This is a reason why the calculated correlation is not as tangible as it would be if company reports would provide more information and therefore more data for analysis. Our findings suggest that voluntary environmental reporting should be complemented by legally defined mandatory elements for such reporting.

Keywords: Environmental performance, Environmental reports, Environmental Performance Index, Manufacturing