Search Results (4)

Climate change poses an existential threat, spurring businesses and financial markets to integrate environmental accounting and ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) disclosures into decision-making. This study aims to examine how environmental accounting practices and ESG reporting contribute to climate change mitigation in organizations. It seeks to highlight the significance of these tools in enhancing transparency and accountability, thereby driving more sustainable corporate behavior. By synthesizing the recent literature, the study contributes a comprehensive overview of best practices and challenges at the intersection of accounting and climate action, addressing a noted gap in consolidated knowledge. We conducted a systematic literature review (SLR) following PRISMA guidelines. A broad search (2010–2024) across Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar identified 73 records, which were rigorously screened and distilled to 47 relevant peer-reviewed studies. These studies span global contexts and include both conceptual and empirical work, providing a robust dataset for analysis. Environmental accounting was found to play a pivotal role in measuring and managing corporate carbon footprints, effectively translating climate impacts into quantifiable metrics. Firms that implement rigorous carbon accounting and internalize environmental costs tend to set more precise emission reduction targets and justify mitigation investments through a cost–benefit analysis. ESG disclosure frameworks emerged as critical external tools: a high-quality climate disclosure is linked with greater stakeholder trust and even financial benefits such as lower capital costs. Leading companies aligning reports with standards like TCFD or GRI often enjoy enhanced credibility and investor confidence. However, the review also uncovered challenges, like the lack of standardized reporting, risks of greenwashing, and disparities in adoption across regions, that impede the full effectiveness of these practices. The findings underscore that while environmental accounting and ESG reporting are powerful means to drive corporate climate action, their impact depends on improving consistency, rigor, and integration. Harmonizing global reporting standards and mandating disclosures are identified as key steps to improve data comparability. Strengthening the credibility of ESG disclosures and embedding environmental metrics into core decision-making are essential to leverage accounting as a tool for climate change mitigation. The study recommends that policymakers accelerate moves toward mandatory, standardized ESG reporting and urges organizations to proactively enhance their environmental accounting systems that will support global climate objectives and further research on actual emission outcomes. Full article

Credit institutions, according to the 2014/95/EU Directive (implemented in Italy with Legislative Decree No. 254/2016) are obliged to report non-financial and diversity information. Our article focuses on the diversity information to investigate whether the obligation to disclose diversity information within the mandatory non-financial statement (NFS) led to an improvement of the quality of the gender equality information. To address this aim we analyzed five consolidated mandatory NFSs (CNFSs) for the Iccrea Cooperative Banking Group (ICBG) covering the 2017–2021 period. We selected ICBG because of the dearth of studies on the cooperative banking sector, which represent a relevant component of the national banking system in Italy. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first study to explore the quality of information on gender equality in mandatory NFSs for a cooperative banking group using a longitudinal approach. The analysis of the case study’s findings provides evidence that ICBG worked to align its gender information with the Decree requirements and the GRI standards. The longitudinal analysis highlights that, during the five years under study, the ICBG’s information on gender came to fully reflect the EU and Italian requirements. Full article

Cooperative organizations try to balance economic viability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) management through strategic policies that involve dialogue, participation, and engagement with stakeholders. To measure the impact of CSR management, the electricity sector implements monitoring processes and models, such as the sustainability reporting standards of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which measure contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations 2030 Agenda. This research analyses the strategic management of CSR in the 28 electric cooperatives that market electricity in Spain with the aim of determining their level of commitment to CSR and stakeholder participation in their corporate policies. The analysis is based on the descriptive-exploratory study of the whole population of electric cooperatives. The results indicate that the CSR management of most electric cooperatives is still in an emerging stage within the Value Curve. Importantly, there is a significant percentage of cooperatives that have already advanced towards the consolidating and institutionalized stages. However, most of these social-economy organizations are not developing programs that link their CSR strategies with their priority SDGs and sustainability as a commitment to their community. Full article

Interest is increasing in what information companies disclose regarding the social aspects of their operations. This research therefore develops an index to analyze the social disclosure of companies from various countries and geographical regions including Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the United States. Using categorical principal component analysis and partial triadic analysis, we build a numerical value for a specific social individual index by firm. Then, we analyze the extent to which this disclosure follows the Global Reporting Initiative 400 social standards, which became effective on 1 July 2018. In addition to considering geographical aspects, we also analyze social disclosure based on industry, which facilitates firms’ decision-making and policy formation in social disclosure. Full article