ABSTRACT

The study scrutinised the impact of the adoption of Global Reporting Initiative's (GRI) G4 guidelines on Australian listed companies’ biodiversity reporting and examined the change of biodiversity reporting from the pre-G4 to the post-G4 era. The impacts of certain firm-specific factors on biodiversity reporting were also examined. Our results show a significant increase in biodiversity reporting during the G4 era as compared to the G3 era, indicating an improved voluntary reporting regime facilitates the extent of biodiversity reporting and introduces more transparency and accountability. The use of GRI’s G4 guidelines, greater media exposure, metals and mining industry membership of companies, and smaller board size increases the extent of firms’ biodiversity disclosure but firm size and profitability do not affect the extent of biodiversity disclosure. Australian biodiversity disclosure increased significantly over time (2012–2015) under the newly released Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy 2010–2030 coupled with the GRI’s G4 guidelines. These results are particularly important to policy makers because they encourage the development of appropriate strategies, coupled with the GRI G4 guidelines, to enhance the quantity and quality of biodiversity disclosures.

摘要

该研究仔细研究了全球报告倡议组织（GRI）G4指南的采用对澳大利亚上市公司生物多样性报告的影响，并研究了从G4到G4后时代的生物多样性报告的变化。还研究了某些公司特定因素对生物多样性报告的影响。我们的结果表明，与G3时代相比，G4时代的生物多样性报告数量显着增加，这表明改进的自愿报告制度促进了生物多样性报告的范围并提高了透明度和问责制。使用GRI的G4准则，增加媒体曝光度，金属和矿业公司会员资格，董事会规模越小，企业的生物多样性披露范围越广，但企业规模和盈利能力不会影响生物多样性披露范围。根据新发布的《澳大利亚2010-2030年生物多样性保护战略》以及GRI的G4指南，澳大利亚生物多样性披露随着时间的推移（2012-2015年）显着增加。这些结果对政策制定者尤其重要，因为它们鼓励制定适当的策略以及GRI G4指南，以提高生物多样性披露的数量和质量。