Corporate misperceptions of environmental risks are relatively frequent and can have catastrophic consequences, as in the case of the two recent tailings dam breaks in Brazil of the mining company Vale. By analysing Vale's documents and testimonies of investors, managers and engineers in the period between the two accidents (2015–2019), we investigated why Vale disregarded potentially disastrous operational risks after the largest tailings spill in the history of mining in Brazil. The results reveal that the sources of risk considered important at Vale were those that could potentially affect the company's short-term financial performance. Overall, these findings indicate that the focus on shareholder value can generate strong biases in the perception and assessment of environmental risks, which can not only cause massive social and environmental impacts, but also, paradoxically, the destruction of shareholder value in the long run.

企业对环境风险的误解相对频繁，并且可能造成灾难性后果，例如矿业公司Vale最近在巴西发生的两次尾矿坝溃坝事件。通过分析两次事故之间（2015-2019年）期间Vale的文件以及投资者，经理和工程师的证词，我们调查了Vale为什么忽略了巴西采矿史上最大的尾矿泄漏后潜在的灾难性运营风险。结果表明，Vale认为重要的风险来源可能会影响公司的短期财务业绩。总体而言，这些发现表明，对股东价值的关注会在感知和评估环境风险方面产生强烈的偏见，