Corporate Environmental Report Study

Corporate environmental report is referred as to the report prepared by the management to communicate information, for the use of various environmental stakeholders(internal or external ), on the environmental accountability and environmental performance of a company. Corporate environmental reporting practice has been evolved rapidly since 1970s and has become one part of annual financial reporting for many western multinational companies. However, theoretical research in the corporate environmental report lagged significantly behind corporate environmental reporting practice. Corporate environmental reporting practice is inevitably in disorder in the absence of a consistent and complete conceptual framework. Therefore, a conceptual framework is important and necessary to standardise corporate environmental reporting practice and ensure the quality of corporate environmental reports. At present, China is faced with both the economic growth and environmental pollution problem. Sustainable development strategy is the only choice for China's economic development. The users' demand in China for corporate environmental information will increase significantly when the sustainable development strategy is further implemented and the public environmental awareness is increased. Nevertheless, there appears to be a mismatch between corporate environmental information disclosures and the users' needs because the current financial reporting system in China emphasizes the economic accountability and ignores the environmental accountability of a company. Many studies show that the corporate environmental report is useful in the following areas such as public scrutiny of corporate environmental accountability, creation of corporate public green image , remedy for the limitations of current financial reporting system and efficient allocation of social resources .Therefore, it is necessary for China to improve the current financial reporting system . Considering the factors mentioned above , this thesis studies systematically and completely the conceptual framework for the corporate environmental reporting by making use of the international literature on thefinancial reporting and corporate environmental reporting. Secondly, on the basis of the results of the analysis of the survey of the environmental reporting practice in China, this thesis constructs an environmental reporting framework which can be used in China's market economy in accordance with the China's sustainable development strategy.This thesis consists of five chapters:Chapter 1 Introduction : the chapter discuss the research background, an review of international and China's literature in the corporate environmental report, the focus of the paper and the structure of this thesis . Chapter 2 Origination and Development of Corporate Environmental Reporting :This chapter explores the reasons why corporate environmental reporting originated and the theories that underpin the origination of corporate environmental reporting. In the end , this chapter reviews the history and current trend of corporate environmental reporting practice in the western developed countries. Chapter 3 Conceptual Framework of Corporate Environmental Reporting . This chapter studies systematically and completely the conceptual framework of corporate environmental reporting by making use of the international literature in the corporate environmental reporting .The conceptual framework of corporate environmental reporting includes (1) the objective of corporate environmental reporting;(2)the qualitative characteristics of corporate environmental reporting;(3)the basic assumption and principles of corporate environmental reporting.Chapter 4 Content ,Forms and Auditing of Corporate Environmental Reporting: The focus of this chapter is on the discussion of the content ,forms and auditing of corporate environmental reporting ,which includes (l)Scope of corporate environmental reporting ;(2) corporate environmental impacts; (3) corpo...