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                    Voluntary Environmental Reporting: 
                                 The Why, What and How 
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                                              
                                                       A thesis 
                                       submitted in partial fulfilment 
                                of the requirements for the Degree of 
                                             Doctor of Philosophy 
                                                              
                                                            at 
                                                 Lincoln University 
                                                              
                                                            by 
                                                    T-A. De Silva 
                                                              
                                                              
                                               Lincoln University 
                                                         2008 
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                                
                          This thesis is dedicated  
                           to everyone who  
                        encouraged me to complete. 
                                
          
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              Abstract of a thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the  
                    requirements for the Degree of Ph.D. 
                                
                     Voluntary Environmental Reporting:  
                        The Why, What and How 
                                
                              by 
                           T-A. De Silva 
          
         Society is increasingly calling for organisations to demonstrate corporate social 
         responsibility (CSR). To fulfil this demand, organisations need to be accountable, 
         democratic and transparent to their stakeholders. This can be achieved using a number of 
         tools including communication about the environmental, social and economic impacts of 
         an organisation’s actions and activities. Yet despite the importance of communicating 
         environmental information, and society’s heightened environmental awareness, 
         organisations are still demonstrating an insufficient commitment to environmental 
         reporting, continuing their reluctance to be open and accountable about their 
         environmental impacts. This suggests organisations currently have little understanding of 
         why they should report, what they should report and/or how they should report.  
          
         For environmental reporting progress to be achieved it is important that we have 
         knowledge of how various factors influence voluntary environmental reporting 
         engagement. This research, in contributing to and extending the body of environmental 
         reporting knowledge, aims to provide an understanding of the Why, What and How of 
         voluntary environmental reporting by specifically examining: why organisations should, 
         and  why organisations do, voluntarily report environmental information; what 
         environmental information organisations should, and what environmental information 
         organisations do, voluntarily report; and how organisations should, and how organisations 
         do, voluntarily report environmental information. 
          
         In using a combination of research methodologies this research extends prior CSR 
         reporting studies – closing the gap between voluntary environmental reporting practice and 
         theory, providing better insights into the underlying reasons and motivations for voluntary 
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         environmental reporting, and providing improved knowledge of the considerations made 
         by companies as part of the voluntary environmental reporting process. In doing so, this 
         research presents a more recent examination of voluntary environmental reporting in the 
         annual reports of New Zealand and Australian publicly listed companies. Aspects of 
         voluntary environmental reporting that have not been extensively examined before, 
         particularly in Australasia, are examined. These include a focus on content-quality (as 
         opposed to reporting quantity), an investigation of the effect of public pressure (using a 
         combination of three proxy measures), and, through the use of qualitative research, an 
         expansion of the insights obtained from quantitative data.  
          
         This research finds that New Zealand and Australian publicly listed companies continue to 
         have an insufficient and incorrect understanding of why they should report, what they 
         should report and/or how they should voluntarily report environmental information. This 
         deficient understanding results in voluntary environmental reporting in their annual reports 
         which is inadequate – the reporting lacks meaning and purpose (i.e. has form but little or 
         no substance), and reflects managers’ incorrect perceptions about the environmental 
         impact of their company’s actions and activities. As a result voluntary environmental 
         reporting in the annual reports of New Zealand and Australian publicly listed companies 
         fails to “… give an understanding, which is not misleading, …” of the environmental 
         consequences of an organisation’s actions and activities (adapted from Alexander & 
         Jermakowicz, 2006, p. 132), providing little accountability to stakeholders, and serving 
         neither external stakeholders nor those reporting well. As the demand for organisations to 
         demonstrate accountability to stakeholders continues to increase over time it is important 
         to develop informed environmental reporting guidance and undertake further examinations 
         of the Why, What and How of environmental reporting.  
          
          
         Keywords: 
         Environmental Reporting, Public Pressure, Content-Quality, Reporting Quality, Social 
         Contract, Legitimacy Theory, Reputation, Social licence to Operate, Corporations Act 
         2001 (Cth) s299(1)(f) 
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