Indicadores ambientais: Um estudo comparativo entre empresas brasileiras e espanholas

Abstract

The objective of this study is to verify environmental indicators used by Brazilian companies in comparison to Spanish companies based on reports, according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) model, published by the companies' websites since 2010. For this, sustainability reports by 280 companies from both countries have been assessed. It is a descriptive research of quantitative nature in which documental and bibliographical procedures have been adopted. The results show that Brazilian and Spanish companies, in the total amount of evidenced indicators, present similar behavior, and the most evidenced items in the investigated companies refer to the use of materials, water, energy and emission of residues. It is emphasized that, according to signaling theory, the studied companies transmit, through of environmental indicators disclosed in the reports, positive information that discriminate them to the stakeholders. It has been concluded that Brazilian companies, despite being located in an emerging country, when compared in terms of evidenced environmental indicators, present performance similar to those of companies located in Spain.