Consistency and Credibility?: Environmental Reporting, Environmental Performance Indicators and Economic Performance

Consistency and Credibility? identifies in its first part the extent of correlation between actual environmental performance, the use of physical environmental performance indicators and corporate environmental reporting in the paper and electricity industries in Germany and the UK. The results suggest environmental performance is mainly country-related, possibly due to differences in environmental legislation. This implies that any assessment of the relationship between environmental and economic performance of firms needs to be based on actual environmental performance data and cannot take reporting quality or information about the intensity of use of specific tools, such as environmental performance indicators as a proxy variable. The second part of the book therefore analyses the relationship between environmental and economic performance. Based on the results, the book's second part concludes that for firms in environmentally-intensive industries it is difficult to create a positive link between their environmental and economic performance, and that market settings as well as strategy considerations both can have an effect, but situational aspects determine which of these dominates. Consistency and Credibility? provides useful information for practitioners as well as deeper insights for academics about the link of environmental reporting and environmental performance measurement and how this interacts with economic success. It thus reveals valuable strategic insights in how aiming for corporate sustainability can help to create business success and which factors are critical for achieving this.