Debates over environmental information to stakeholders as a policy instrument

This paper concerns the provision of environmental information as an environmental policy tool. Corporate environmental information is often hard to obtain and in general not suited for comparison in time and space. This combined with the need for improved environmental performance raises the question of whether mandatory information schemes could be a powerful tool within environmental regulation. The power definitely depends on how the disclosure scheme affects managers' and stakeholders' behaviour. A number of factors, such as the extent of environmental impacts of the industry, the degree of competition in the industry, the cost of improving environmental performance and customer characteristics, probably create differences in managers' responses to mandatory disclosure. This implies different needs for mandatory disclosure with respect to both quality and quantity. One conclusion drawn from the discussion is that focus probably should be drawn towards the quality of information rather than the quantity, especially for large firms.