Limited progress in sustainable development: Factors influencing the environmental management and reporting of South African JSE‐listed companies

Abstract

Although public, governmental, international and stakeholder pressure have led to corporations conforming to better sustainability performance, there has been an insignificant reduction in environmental degradation levels, and progress in sustainable development is limited. This study examines which factors influencing environmental management and reporting in South Africa could potentially contribute to this limited progress. The study was based on a series of interviews with sustainability managers of JSE‐listed firms. Results suggest that stock exchange listing requirements, internal processes and structures, experienced staff and the sustainability committee positively influence environmental and overall corporate sustainability, yet that resource and time constraints, as well as reporting fatigue, potentially limit the advancement of sustainable development. This restricts the further reduction of environmental degradation, which is urgently necessary in light of the harmful impacts that for example climate change has on the environment, societies and economies.

The determinants of business contribution to the 2030 Agenda: Introducing the SDG Reporting Score

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Determinants of materiality disclosure quality in integrated reporting: Empirical evidence from an international setting

“…Despite extensive discourse on materiality by researchers and standard setters, the concept may still be regarded as inherently nondistinctive due to the lack of a clear dividing line between material and nonmaterial matters (Bernstein, ; Kitsikopoulos, Schwaibold, & Taylor, ; Lo, ; Whitehead, ). As such, materiality inevitably provides companies with administrative discretion for expectation management and favorable self‐display (Edgley, ; Stubbs & Higgins, ).…”

Environmental key performance indicators: the role of regulations and stakeholder influence

“…Capturing how companies' low-carbon transition plan is supported by debt financing activities and how capital is raised for existing and new projects with climate benefits nonfinancial disclosure, in turn, is a form of corporate responsibility to society and a way of fulfilling the information needs of investors, employees, customers, ecologists, and other parties. Continuous environmental degradation has triggered increased stakeholder pressure on companies to change their behavior and focus more on their environmental impacts (Kitsikopoulos et al 2018;Helfaya and Moussa 2017;Isaacs et al 2015;Johnson et al 2013;Hovardas and Poirazidis 2007). Prior research has analyzed stakeholder pressures and corporate responses (Sprengel and Busch 2010) with regard to environmental strategies (Seroka-Stolka and Fijorek 2020).…”