Environmental Disclosures: The Annual Report & Accounts of Companies in the FTSE All Share

The report was intended to provide a baseline of the current environmental disclosures of the FTSE All Share companies before the new Company Law regulation, which required listed companies to produce an ‘Operating and Financial Review’, and the implementation of various EU environmental regulations such as the Emissions Trading Scheme and the Environmental Liability Directive. The study was intended to be repeated in 2006.

Among the findings are that 89% of FTSE All Share companies discuss their interaction with the environment in their Annual Reports and Accounts. However, the vast majority lack depth, rigour or quantification and 11% disclose nothing at all. Almost three quarters make a reference to environmental policies but less than 50% report on a subject other than their environmental policy, which in itself is not a measure of environmental performance.