Environmental reporting in Italy: current practice and future developments

Over the last few years, state of the art literature has widely acknowledged the importance of environmental reporting to improve a company's ‘green’ image and its relationships with stakeholders. In this respect, many empirical studies have been carried out in Northern Europe to investigate whether and how environmental reporting is growing in quantity and quality. In contrast, there has been almost no debate on the evolution of such practices in countries with a more limited environmental awareness. In the light of these issues, the paper attempts to clarify the relevance and the effectiveness of environmental reporting in Italy. Specifically, it aims to (i) discuss, by means of an empirical investigation, current practices in environmental reporting, (ii) analyse the performance of the published reports and (iii) suggest how environmental reports should change in the future to conform better with the stakeholders' informational requirements. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment