Private climate change reporting: An emerging discourse of risk and opportunity?

Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal

Volumn 24, Issue 8, 2011, Pages 1119-1148

  Solomon, Jill F ^a   Solomon, Aris ^b   Norton, Simon D ^c   Joseph, Nathan L ^d  

^a KING'S COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

^b ATHABASCA UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^c CARDIFF UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^d ASTON UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Climate change; Private climate change reporting; Risk discourse; Risk management; Risk society; Sustainability reporting

Indexed keywords

EID: 80055059598     PISSN: 09513574     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1108/09513571111184788     Document Type: Article

References (98)

1. ACCA (2007), Improving Climate Change Reporting, an ACCA and FTSE Group Discussion Paper, ACCA, London.
2. Alvesson, M. and Kärreman, D. (2000), "Varieties of discourse: on the study of organizations through discourse analysis" in Human Relations, Vol. 53, No. 9, pp. 1125-49.
3. Bansal, P. and Roth, K. (2000), "Why companies go green: a model of ecological responsiveness" in Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 43, No. 4, pp. 717-36.
4. Bazeley, P. (2007), Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo, Sage Publications, London.
5. Bebbington, J. and Gray, R. (2001), "An account of sustainability: failure, success and a reconceptualisation" in Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 12, pp. 557-87.
6. Bebbington, J., Brown, J., Frame, B. and Thomson, I. (2007), "Theorizing engagement: the potential of a critical dialogic approach" in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 356-81.
7. Beck, U. (1992), Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity, Sage Publications, London.
8. Beck, U. (1997), "Subpolitics: ecology and the disintegration of institutional power" in Organization and Environment, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 52-65.
9. Beck, U. (1999), World Risk Society, Polity, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
10. Berger, P. and Luckmann, T. (1966), The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge, Penguin Books, London.
11. Buhr, N. (2007), "Histories of and rationales for sustainability reporting" in Unerman, J., Bebbington, J. and O'Dwyer, B. (Eds.), Sustainability Accounting and Accountability, Routledge, Abingdon, pp. 57-69.
12. (The) Carbon Trust (2005), A Climate for Change: A Trustee's Guide to Understanding and Addressing Climate Risk, The Carbon Trust, London, August.
13. (The) Carbon Trust (2006), Climate Change and Shareholder Value, The Carbon Trust, London, March.
14. Douglas, M. and Wildavsky, A. (1982), Risk and Culture, University of California Press, Los Angeles, CA.
15. Eden, S. (1994), "Using sustainable development: the business case" in Global Environmental Change, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 160-7.
16. EIRIS (2009), "Governance and management: climate change briefing paper", ACCA, London.
17. Everett, J. and Neu, D. (2000), "Ecological modernisation and the limits of environmental accounting" in Accounting Forum, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 1-29.
18. FEE (2009), Policy Statement: Carbon Emissions Information, FEE, Brussels, 31 July.
19. Fontana, A. and Frey, J.H. (2000), "The interview: from structured questions to negotiated text" Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., Sage Publications, London.
20. Forum for the Future (2008), Climate Futures: Responses to Climate Change in 2030, Forum for the Future, London, October.
21. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (2005), A legal framework for the integration of environmental, social and governance issues into institutional investment, produced for the Asset Management Working Group of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, UNEP Finance Initiative, Geneva, October.
22. Friedman, A.L. and Miles, S. (2001), "Socially responsible investment and corporate social and environmental reporting in the UK: an exploratory study" in British Accounting Review, Vol. 33, pp. 523-48.
23. Georgakopoulos, G. and Thomson, I. (2005), "Organic salmon farming: risk perceptions, decision heuristics and the absence of environmental accounting" in Accounting Forum, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 49-75.
24. Giddens, A. (1990), The Consequences of Modernity, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
25. Gore, A. (2006), An Inconvenient Truth: The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It, Bloomsbury Publishing, London.
26. Gramsci, A. (1971), Selections from the Prison Notebooks, International Publishers, New York, NY, (trans. by Hoare, Q. and Smith, G.N. (Eds)).
27. Gray, R., Kouhy, R. and Lavers, S. (1995), "Corporate social and environmental reporting: a review of the literature and a longitudinal study of UK disclosure" in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 47-77.
28. Gray, R., Owen, D. and Adams, C. (1996), Accounting and Accountability: Changes and Challenges in Corporate Social and Environmental Reporting, Prentice Hall, London.
29. Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol (2004), A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Geneva.
30. Hardy, C. and Phillips, N. (1999), "No joking matter: discursive struggle in the Canadian refugee system" in Organization Studies, Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 1-24.
31. Hardy, C., Palmer, I. and Phillips, N. (2000), "Discourse as a strategic resource" in Human Relations, Vol. 53, No. 9, pp. 1227-48.
32. HeadLand (2007), Has the Debate on Climate Change Affected Institutional Investment Behaviour?, report commissioned by the HeadLand Consultancy, HeadLand Consultancy, Brighton, June.
33. Holland, J.B. (1998a), "Private disclosure and financial reporting" in Accounting and Business Research, Vol. 28, 4, Autumn, pp. 255-69.
34. Holland, J.B. (1998b), "Private voluntary disclosure, financial intermediation and market efficiency", Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Vol. 25, 142, January/March.
35. Hopwood, A.G. (2009), "Accounting and the environment" in Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 34, pp. 433-9.
36. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007), The Physical Science Basis, IPCC, Geneva.
37. KPMG (2008), International Survey of Corporate Responsibility Reporting 2008, KPMG International, Amstelveen.
38. Laughlin, R. (1991), "Environmental disturbances and organisational transitions and transformations: some alternative models" in Organization Studies, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 209-32.
39. Livesey, S.M. (2001), "Eco-identity as discursive struggle: Royal Dutch/Shell, Brent Spar, and Nigeria" in The Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 58-91.
40. Livesey, S.M. (2002), "The discourse of the middle ground: Citizen Shell commits to sustainable development" in Management Communication Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 313-49.
41. Livesey, S.M. and Kearins, K. (2002), "Transparent and caring corporations: a study of sustainability reports by The Body Shop and Royal Dutch/Shell" in Organization & Environment, Vol. 15, 3, September, pp. 233-58.
42. Luhmann, N. (2005), Risk: A Sociological Theory, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick, NJ.
43. Lupton, D. (1999), Risk, Routledge, London.
44. McCann, L., Solomon, A. and Solomon, J.F. (2003), "Explaining the recent growth in UK socially responsible investment" in Journal of General Management, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 32-53.
45. Mathews, M.R. (1997), "Twenty-five years of social and environmental accounting research: is there a silver jubilee to celebrate?" in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 10, No. 4, pp. 481-531.
46. Mercer Investment Consulting (2006), 2006 Fearless Forecast: What Do Investment Managers Think about Responsible Investment?, Mercer Human Resource Consulting LLC and Investment Consulting, New York, NY, March.
47. Miles, M.B. and Huberman, A.M. (1994), Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook, Sage Publications, London.
48. Milne, M.J., Tregidga, H. and Walton, S. (2009), "Words not actions! The ideological role of sustainable development reporting" in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 22, No. 8, pp. 1211-57.
49. O'Dwyer, B. (2003), "Conceptions of corporate social responsibility: the nature of managerial capture" in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 523-57.
50. Owen, D., Gray, R. and Bebbington, J. (1997), "Green accounting: cosmetic irrelevance or radical agenda for change?" in Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 175-98.
51. Power, M. (1991), "Accounting and environmental expertise: between protest and professionalism" in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 30-42.
52. Prasad, P. and Elmes, M. (2005), "In the name of the practical: unearthing the hegemony of pragmatics in the discourse of environmental management" in Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 845-67.
53. QSR (2008a), NVivo 8 Fundamentals: Starting to Work with Your Materials, QSR International, Doncaster.
54. QSR (2008b), Moving on in NVivo 8: Exploring, Visualising and Sharing your Materials, QSR International, Doncaster.
55. Roberts, J., Sanderson, P., Barker, R. and Hendry, J. (2006), "In the mirror of the market: the disciplinary effects of company/fund manager meetings" in Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 31, pp. 277-94.
56. Ryan, G.W. and Bernard, H.R. (2000), "Data management and analysis methods" Denzin, N.K. and Lincoln, Y.S. (Eds.), Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., Sage Publications, London, Ch. 29.
57. Solomon, A. (2000), "Could environmental reporting shadow financial reporting?" in Accounting Forum, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 30-56.
58. Solomon, J.F. (2009a), Pension Fund Trustees and Climate Change, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), London, ACCA Research Monograph, Research Report 106.
59. Solomon, J.F. (2009b), "Pension fund trustees and climate change: one tear on", ACCA Discussion Paper, Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), London.
60. Solomon, J.F. (2010), Corporate Governance and Accountability, 3rd ed., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
61. Solomon, J.F. and Darby, L. (2005), "Is private social, ethical and environmental disclosure mythicizing or demythologizing reality?" in Accounting Forum, Vol. 29, pp. 27-47.
62. Solomon, J.F. and Solomon, A. (2006), "Private social, ethical and environmental disclosure" in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 19, No. 4, pp. 564-91.
63. Solomon, J.F., Solomon, A., Joseph, N.L. and Norton, S.D. (2002), "Who would be a trustee? The growth of SRI in UK pension funds" in New Academy Review, Vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 98-104.
64. Stern, N. (2006), The Economics of Climate Change: The Stern Review, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
65. Strauss, A. and Corbin, J. (1998), Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, SAGE Publications, London.
66. Sullivan, R., Russell, D. and Robins, N. (2008), Managing the Unavoidable: Understanding the Investment Implications of Adapting to Climate Change, Henderson Global Investors, USS, Railpen Investments and Insight Investment.
67. Thomson, I. (2007), "Mapping the terrain of sustainability accounting" Unerman, J., Bebbington, J. and O'Dwyer, B. (Eds.), Sustainability Accounting and Accountability, Routledge, Abingdon.
68. Thomson, I. and Bebbington, J. (2004), "It doesn't matter what you teach" in Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 15, pp. 609-28.
69. Thomson, I. and Bebbington, J. (2005), "Social and environmental reporting in the UK: a pedagogic evaluation" in Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 16, No. 5, pp. 507-33.
70. Tregidga, H. and Milne, M. (2006), "From sustainable management to sustainable development: a longitudinal analysis of a leading New Zealand environmental reporter" in Business Strategy and the Environment, Vol. 15, pp. 219-41.
71. Trucost (2009), "Investment: climate change briefing paper", ACCA, London.
72. UNEP FI (2009), Fiduciary Responsibility - Legal and Practical Aspects of Integrating Environment, Social; and Governance Issues into Institutional Investment, Asset Management Working Group of the UNEP FI, United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative, Geneva.
73. Unerman, J. and O'Dwyer, B. (2004), "A case for NGO accountability in the risk society", working paper.
74. Weitzman, E.A. (2000), "Software and qualitative research" Denzin, N.K. (Ed.), Handbook of Qualitative Research, 2nd ed., Sage Publications, London, Ch. 30.
75. Welford, R. (Ed.) (1997), Hijacking Environmentalism: Corporate Response to Sustainable Development, Earthscan, London.
76. WWF/Trucost/Mercer (2009), Carbon Risks in UK Equity Funds, WWF/Trucost/Mercer.
77. Acclimatise (2009), "Adaptation: climate change briefing paper", ACCA, London.
78. Atkinson, G. (2000), "Measuring corporate sustainability" in Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 235-52.
79. Bebbington, J., Gray, R., Hibbitt, V. and Kirk, E. (2001), Full Cost Accounting: An Agenda for Action, Certified Accountants Educational Trust, London, ACCA Research Monograph.
80. Economist Intelligence Unit (2008), Under the Spotlight: The Transition of Environmental Risk Management, Economist Intelligence Unit, London.
81. Gray, R., Walters, D., Bebbington, J. and Thomson, I. (1995), "The greening of enterprise: an exploration of the (non) role of environmental accounting and environmental accountants in organizational change" in Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Vol. 6, pp. 211-39.
82. (The) Hampel Report (1998), The Final Report, The Committee on Corporate Governance and Gee Professional Publishing, London.
83. Hildyard, N. and Mansley, M. (2001), The Campaigners Guide to Financial Markets: Effective Lobbying of Companies and Financial Institutions, The Corner House, London.
84. Hines, R.D. (1988), "Financial accounting: in communicating reality, we construct reality" in Accounting, Organizations & Society, Vol. 13, No. 3, pp. 251-61.
85. Jones, M.J. (1996), "Accounting for biodiversity" in British Accounting Review, Vol. 28, pp. 281-303.
86. Jones, M.J. (2002), "Accounting for biodiversity: operationalising environmental accounting" in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 16, No. 5, pp. 762-89.
87. Levy, D. (1997), "Environmental management as political sustainability" in Organization & Environment, Vol. 10, 2, June, pp. 126-47.
88. Mansley, M. (2000), Socially Responsible Investment: A Guide for Pension Funds and Institutional Investors, Monitor Press, Sudbury.
89. Monks, R.A.G. (2001), The New Global Investors: How Shareholders Can Unlock Sustainable Prosperity Worldwide, Capstone Publishing, Oxford.
90. Nasi, J., Nasi, S., Phillips, N. and Zyglidopoulos, S. (1997), "The evolution of corporate social responsiveness: an exploratory study of Finnish and Canadian forestry companies" in Business and Society, Vol. 38, No. 3, pp. 206-321.
91. O'Donovan, G. (2002), "Environmental disclosures in the annual report: extending the applicability and predictive power of legitimacy theory" in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 344-71.
92. Sethi, S.P. (1977), "Dimensions of corporate social performance: an analytical framework" Carroll, A.B. (Ed.), Managing Corporate Social Responsibility, Little Brown & Co., Boston, MA.
93. Solomon, A. (1999), "An investigation into a conceptual framework for environmental reporting", unpublished PhD thesis, Sheffield University, Sheffield.
94. Solomon, J.F. (2009), "The transformation in socially responsible investment", Contemporary Issues in International Corporate Governance, Tilde University Press, Prahran.
95. Solomon, J.F., Solomon, A., Joseph, N.L. and Norton, S.D. (2000), "Institutional investors views on corporate governance reform: policy recommendations for the 21st century" in Corporate Governance: An International Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 217-26.
96. Solomon, J.F., Solomon, A., Joseph, N.L. and Norton, S.D. (2008), "Impression management, concealment and power in private social and environmental reporting", paper presented at the European Accounting Association Conference, Tampere, Finland, May.
97. Suchman, M.C. (1995), "Managing legitimacy: strategic and institutional approaches" in Academy of Management Review, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 571-610.
98. (The) Walker Review (2009), A Review of Corporate Governance in UK Banks and other Financial Industry Entities, The Walker Review Secretariat, London, 16 July.