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Driving Public Sector Environmental Reporting

Author

Listed:
  • Sumit Lodhia
  • Kerry Jacobs
  • Yoon Jin Park

Abstract

This article analyses environmental reporting practices within public sector entities. It explores the type and extent of environmental disclosures by all 19 Australian Commonwealth Departments in annual reports and sustainability reports, through a legitimacy approach and a content analysis instrument based on the global reporting initiative (GRI). The findings of this research indicate that there is relatively little difference in the reporting practices of departments with legitimacy drivers of size and mission than other departments. We see little evidence of a wide-spread adoption of GRI reporting and argue that drivers internal to government, particularly the coercive influence of legislation and government-regulation, are a better explanation of public sector environment reporting than a legitimacy explanation. We argue that there is some support for a legitimacy argument in that the most significant category of environmental reporting was reporting of departmental initiatives which could be seen as having potential legitimacy motivation and benefits. We conclude with the argument that a more sophisticated approach to legitimacy is required to understand the role of environmental reporting in the public sector context.

Suggested Citation

  • Sumit Lodhia & Kerry Jacobs & Yoon Jin Park, 2012. "Driving Public Sector Environmental Reporting," Public Management Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(5), pages 631-647, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:pubmgr:v:14:y:2012:i:5:p:631-647
    DOI: 10.1080/14719037.2011.642565
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    Cited by:

    1. Rodrigo Lozano & Maria Barreiro‐Gen, 2023. "Civil society organisations as agents for societal change: Football clubs' engagement with sustainability," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 820-828, March.
    2. Tamara Guerrero-Gómez & Andrés Navarro-Galera & David Ortiz-Rodríguez, 2021. "Promoting Online Transparency to Help Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals: An Empirical Study of Local Governments in Latin America," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-18, February.
    3. Liliana Hawrysz & Joachim Foltys, 2015. "Environmental Aspects of Social Responsibility of Public Sector Organizations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Rodrigo Lozano, 2023. "Analysing organisations' engagement with and impacts to sustainability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5721-5733, December.
    5. Andrés Navarro-Galera & Francisco José Alcaraz-Quiles & David Ortiz-Rodriguez, 2018. "Enhancing Sustainability Transparency in Local Governments—An Empirical Research in Europe," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Jan Alpenberg & Tomasz Wnuk-Pel & Amanda Henebäck, 2018. "Environmental Orientation in Swedish Local Governments," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-21, February.
    7. Lai Ken Tan & Matthew Egan, 2018. "The Public Accountability Value of a Triple Bottom Line Approach to Performance Reporting in the Water Sector," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 28(2), pages 235-250, June.
    8. Rodrigo Lozano, 2018. "Proposing a Definition and a Framework of Organisational Sustainability: A Review of Efforts and a Survey of Approaches to Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-21, April.
    9. Leyla Azizi & Colin Bien & Remmer Sassen, 2018. "Recent trends in sustainability reporting by German universities [Aktuelle Trends in der Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung deutscher Universitäten]," Sustainability Nexus Forum, Springer, vol. 26(1), pages 65-85, December.
    10. Binh Bui & Charl de Villiers, 2021. "Recovery from Covid‐19 towards a low‐carbon economy: a role for accounting technologies in designing, implementing and assessing stimulus packages," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 4789-4831, September.
    11. Remmer Sassen & Leyla Azizi, 2018. "Voluntary disclosure of sustainability reports by Canadian universities," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 88(1), pages 97-137, January.
    12. Hong Chen & Haowen Zhu & Tianchen Sun & Xiangyu Chen & Tao Wang & Wenhong Li, 2023. "Does Environmental Regulation Promote Corporate Green Innovation? Empirical Evidence from Chinese Carbon Capture Companies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-24, January.
    13. Aurelio Tommasetti & Riccardo Mussari & Gennaro Maione & Daniela Sorrentino, 2020. "Sustainability Accounting and Reporting in the Public Sector: Towards Public Value Co-Creation?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-19, March.
    14. Maria Barreiro-Gen & Rodrigo Lozano & Afnan Zafar, 2020. "Changes in Sustainability Priorities in Organisations due to the COVID-19 Outbreak: Averting Environmental Rebound Effects on Society," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-13, June.
    15. Francisco J. Alcaraz-Quiles & Andrés Navarro-Galera & David Ortiz-Rodríguez, 2020. "The contribution of the right to information laws in Europe to local government transparency on sustainability," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 161-178, March.
    16. Monika Kansal & Mahesh Joshi & Shekar Babu & Sharad Sharma, 2018. "Reporting of Corporate Social Responsibility in Central Public Sector Enterprises: A Study of Post Mandatory Regime in India," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(3), pages 813-831, September.

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