A descriptive analysis of environmental disclosures: A study of the US Chemical Industry

Abstract

An empirical study was conducted to examine the nature of environmental disclosures of 29 firms in the chemical industry. From the examination of over 3700 disclosures, the results show that the type of disclosures presented across firms and across industries varied based on a number of factors. The disclosures were analyzed based on medium, focus, channel of communication, time span, subject and environmental regulation. The results showed that the majority of the disclosures were found in the press, presented current environmental issues, were non-technical in nature, were qualitative in nature and dealt with pollution and environmental expenditure issues. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.