Environmental Accounting as a Tool for Sustainable Development: An Empirical Study on Large Scale Companies in Gujarat

Abstract

The disclosing of environmental accounting information is a crucial step towards achieving the aim of “carbon emission.” The corporate sector’s role is higher in polluting the environment as well as the extravagant use of natural resources. Many steps have been initiated by the Indian government in favour of environmental protection and sustainable development. PM Modi introduced India’s “Panchamrit” to achieve the net zero emissions target by 2070. In this regard, this study has been undertaken to examine the environmental variable disclosure score (EVDS) by the selected thirty (30) companies in the state of Gujarat. Only large-scale companies are listed on National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange stock exchanges. Only high-polluting companies which fall in the red category (as per Gujarat Pollution Control Board) that only selected for the study. Earlier studies focused on revealing the environmental information of the companies at the India level but very few studies have been observed at the state level. Hence, this research bridges the gap by examining the impact of audit quality on EVDS, the Business Responsibility Report (BR Report) score on EVDS, and analysing the difference between the large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap companies in EVDS.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21863/jcar/2024.13.1.008

Keywords: Audit Quality, Business Responsibility Report, Environmental Accounting, Environmental Variable Disclosure Score

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