Miljöinformation i förvaltningsberättelsen

Abstract: The first of May 2005 changes were made in the Annual Accounts Act. The 2006 Annual Report of companies with more than ten employees or assets over 24 million SEK must include environmental information in the directors' report if it affects the company's development, result or position. A survey made by KPMG 2007 investigating the environmental information of companies listed on Large Cap Segment of the OMX Stockholm exchange showed that only a third of the companies, included in the survey, complied with the new law requirements. I have examined how the environmental information in the directors' report is formulated and why the information is formulated in that fashion. I have examined seven companies listed on the Large Cap Segment of the OMX Stockholm exchange. Four companies from the materials sector and three banks from the financials sector were included in the survey. I have also made a comparison within and between the different sectors on how well they have complied with the law requirements and to what degree the purposes of the changes of the Annual Accounts Act have been met. The results show that the environmental information varies greatly within the materials sector and between the two sectors. The banks had no environmental information in the directors' report. There were a few factors that influenced the environmental information. In the materials sector the internal purpose of including environmental information in the directors' report, whether a separate sustainability report existed and views on the characteristics of the directors' report as a communication channel were the main factors that affected the environmental information. In the financials sector the lack of environmental information depended on a meagre interpretation of the law and a lack of reliability of the environmental information. Few of the purposes for changing the act were met at this point.