EU study report published about environmental accounting and reporting

Accounting and reporting for the environment has become increasingly relevant to enterprises and their
major stakeholders, e.g. investors, creditors, governments and the public at large.

This report surveys the Annual/Financial reports of a large number of companies (mainly EU companies or
companies that operate in the EU) with a view to identify best practice and to evaluate the relevance and
comparability of the environmental information that is disclosed. The report also recommends ways of
improving the reliability, comparability and usefulness of the disclosures. The views of the authors and the
recommendations given do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

The aim of this study was to identify disclosures that allow for standardisation and comparability of
environmental information being presented in corporate Annual/Financial Reports. Companies (88)
participated in this study on the prerequisites that they are based in the EU; operate in the EU; based or
operate outside the EU but offer best practice example; produce an Environmental Report. Expert
organisations (18) and report user organisations (11) that utilise Annual/Financial Reports as part of their
daily business also agreed to participate. The Annual/Financial Reports and Environmental Reports of the
companies were analysed and all participants were invited to take part in an online discussion relating to
the disclosure of environmental information in the Annual/Financial Report and asked to complete a
questionnaire.