Environmental disclosure outside the annual report

The decision on where to report environmental information has not received very much attention to date, and most research in the area indicates that annual report is the most common medium. As is pointed out by many authors, however, there is no evidence that the decision to use the annual report is made because it is the most appropriate medium or because it finds the relevant audiences for this type of material. This study therefore investigates a variety of other non-electronic reporting media produced by Australian companies and considers whether their use as an outlet for environmental disclosure changed over a five-year period. A major implication of the findings is that, except for the use of separate environmental reports, little use is made of any other form of reporting media outside the annual report. The findings also suggest, however, that as the use of separate environmental reports increases, disclosure via other media, perhaps even the annual report, may diminish (although social disclosures may remain in the annual report), indicating a need to consider the motivations for the choice of media, and a possible need for a change in the direction of environmental disclosure research.