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Using life cycle approaches to enhance the value of corporate environmental disclosures

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  • Josef Kaenzig
  • Damien Friot
  • Myriam Saadé
  • Manuele Margni
  • Olivier Jolliet

Abstract

As the focus of environmental policy and management shifts from cleaner production at the process level towards greener products as a whole, stakeholders ask for transparency throughout the entire value chain. This article assesses the comprehensiveness and the value of currently reported quantitative environmental disclosures of 97 listed companies from the automotive, banking, pharmaceutical and electronic hardware sectors. Findings indicate that quantitative environmental disclosures have many limitations, including incompleteness and inconsistency regarding corporate activities and sites, and limited internal data coherence. For many sectors, corporate disclosures only cover a very small share of the total environmental burden of products. A stepwise procedure is proposed to verify and improve the quality and completeness of reporting using life cycle approaches. We present simple data quality tests, and we introduce the concept of the environmental influence matrix, which provides a solid basis for the identification and prioritization of key performance indicators and areas of action. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Josef Kaenzig & Damien Friot & Myriam Saadé & Manuele Margni & Olivier Jolliet, 2011. "Using life cycle approaches to enhance the value of corporate environmental disclosures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 38-54, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:20:y:2011:i:1:p:38-54
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.667
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Raphaëlle Stewart & Peter Fantke & Anders Bjørn & Mikołaj Owsianiak & Christine Molin & Michael Zwicky Hauschild & Alexis Laurent, 2018. "Life cycle assessment in corporate sustainability reporting: Global, regional, sectoral, and company‐level trends," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1751-1764, December.
    2. Tabi, Andrea & Hille, Stefanie Lena & Wüstenhagen, Rolf, 2014. "What makes people seal the green power deal? — Customer segmentation based on choice experiment in Germany," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 206-215.
    3. Maryam Hina & Chetna Chauhan & Rajat Sharma & Amandeep Dhir, 2023. "Circular economy business models as pillars of sustainability: Where are we now, and where are we heading?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 6182-6209, December.
    4. Christofer Skaar & Annik Magerholm Fet, 2012. "Accountability in the Value Chain: From Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) to CSR Product Declaration," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(4), pages 228-239, July.
    5. Muhammad Imran & Zhaoquan Jian & Adnan ul Haque & Mariusz Urbański & Sree Lekshmi Sreekumaran Nair, 2018. "Determinants of Firm’s Export Performance in China’s Automobile Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-23, November.
    6. Joana M. Comas Martí & Ralf W. Seifert, 2013. "Assessing the Comprehensiveness of Supply Chain Environmental Strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 339-356, July.

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