Influencing factors on carbon reporting: an empirical study in Spanish companies
| Pages | 19-29 |
| Published date | 01 January 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/20425941311313074 |
| Date | 01 January 2013 |
| Author | José María González‐González,Constancio Zamora‐Ramírez |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management |
Influencing factors on carbon
reporting: an empirical study in
Spanish companies
Jose
´Marı
´a Gonza
´lez-Gonza
´lez and Constancio Zamora-Ramı
´rez
Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Seville, Seville, Spain
Abstract
Purpose – The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has become an international instrument for carbon
reporting of companies. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the influence of some factors of the
institutional environment of organizations (regulatory pressure, sustainability normative demands
and interconnectedness) on the evaluation obtained by Spanish companies in this project.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper has proceeded to make a multiple regression
analysis in order to analyze the relationship between the dependent variable (“Carbon Disclosure”
qualification) and independent variables (regulatory pressure, sustainability normative demands
and interconnectedness) supported on the computer program Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS).
Findings – The results show that the interconnectedness of companies through their participation in
associations that fight against climate change is the analyzed factor with a higher predictive power
and statistical significance. Also, the regulatory pressure and normative demands from sustainability
indexes, such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index, influence the carbon reporting of organizations
participating in the CDP.
Research limitations/implications – The main limitation of this paper is the reduced number of
Spanish companies participating in the CDP.
Originality/value – This paper highlights the importance of the role developed by the associations
fighting against climate change, since they allow the members to belong to a network through which
they share resources, norms and values that positively and significantly influence their behaviour
related to carbon reporting.
Keywords Spain, Organizations, Climate change, Carbon, Information disclosure, Carbon reporting,
Carbon disclosure project, Institutional theory, Spanish companies
Paper type Research p aper
1. Introduction
Throughout the past decade, different stakeholders have significantly increased their
demand for information on carbon emissions to the environment by large
organisations, pressing them to elaborate emissions inventories, and the
establishment of goals and strategies to mitigate and adapt to climate change
(Pinkse and Kolk, 2009; Villiers and Staden, 2010). For this purpose, voluntary
participation in the Carbon Disclosure Project[1] (CDP) is one of the measures used by
organisations to develop their carbon reporting, which is increasingly extending on an
international level (Kolk et al., 2008; Stanny and Ely, 2008). In the case of Spain, the first
CDP questionnaire was developed in 2008, and it has been performed annually since
then. The last results published correspond to the year 2011.
The CDP aims to assess the transparency level of the techniques to measure
emissions of the organisations and their subsequent public communication,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/2042-5945.htm
WorldJour nal of Science, Technology
and Sustainable Development
Vol.10 No.1, 2013
pp. 19-29
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
2042-5945
DOI 10.1108/20425941311313074
The authors are grateful for the collaboration of Rocı
´o Ballesta-Crespo (statistician) in
developing the research methodology of the paper.
19
Carbon reporting
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