EVALUATING ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING: THE CASE OF CROATIAN LISTED MANUFACTURING COMPANIES

Abstract

Summary: The importance of environmental accounting has been recognised on a global scale, and thus environmental reporting has become legally required. The implementation of environmental accounting results in environmental information that has become part of the company’s non-financial report, as well as a component in creating a comprehensive overview of the company’s business activities. The aim of this paper is to research into the environmental accounting and reporting within Croatian listed manufacturing companies. It analyses the manner in which companies report environmental information, as well as the share of environmental information in the financial reports of listed companies in 2017, focusing on the manufacturing industry as the one with the most significant environmental impact. The results show that listed manufacturing companies do not use environmental accounting sufficiently, which consequently leads to insufficient environmental reporting. Listed manufacturing companies in the Republic of Croatia mostly report environmental information in a quantitative manner. The results of the analysis of environmental information show that companies’ reports often contain information on pollution and exhaust gases, while sustainability information is the least present information. In addition, few companies report on sustainability related to natural resource stocks and consumption and recycling. Thus, it is clear that caring for natural resources and protecting the environment for future generations are a low priority for management in the Croatian listed manufacturing companies. The companies surveyed report environmental information differently depending on the subsector they belong to. Furthermore, the implementation of environmental accounting and reporting has not increased on the basis of legal regulations.