Environmental sustainability in the company: what relationship between voluntary disclosure and internal management?
The dimension of environmental sustainability within the business activities represents a theme of growing importance. This paper analyses the relationship between “voluntary disclosure environmental” and “internal environmental management” in order to understand if and how the two dimensions are related and consistent with each other. The internal environmental management is considered, in particular, as the company’s attention towards environmental sustainability as part of the systems internal decisions and implementation of sustainability practices. From the theoretical point of view, the study identifies four categories representative of possible associations, making use of a matrix representative of the high-low two dimensions indicated and defined in accordance with previous studies. The test sample is represented by forty-four companies operating in sectors considered at high environmental impact. The results show a prevalence of internal environmental management practices than the voluntary disclosure.
Keywords: environmental management, voluntary disclosure environment, environmental accounting, environmental sustainability.
