A study of Environmental Disclosure within the OMXS30 : with reference to the Global Reporting Initiative

Background: Climate change is an urgent issue which needs to be addressed and it is not uncommon for large companies to be involved in environmental scandals. Companies included in the OMXS30 both affect and are affected by the global and local environment. Sweden is on the forefront of sustainability. Yet, in recent years Swedish companies have been involved in such scandals. Therefore, it is important to further increase the transparency of corporate operations. The Global Reporting Initiative provide a voluntary set of guidelines which companies can use to report on sustainability matters in general and environmental issues in particular. Sustainability reporting is a common research topic. However, few studies have been done on measuring environmental indicators used by companies applying the GRI guidelines. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to measure which environmental indicators from the GRI framework are mostly reported on in 2015, among companies included in the OMXS30. Further, it aims to plot potential differences between the sectors represented in the sample. To detect patterns these two questions will be evaluated over a five-year period, 2011-2015. Method: To conduct this study a mix between quantitative and qualitative research methods will be used. The data will be collected using a quantitative approach and analysed using qualitative content analysis. This study will use secondary data, collected from company reports through the GRI sustainability database or the company website. Conclusion: The results of this study shows environmental indicators in the aspects energy and emissions to be the most reported on. This finding is consistent for the five years included in this study. Further, this study found differences in reporting between the sectors included in the sample. Almost all companies reported on the indicators that was found to be most common in this study, but differences were found in the level of reporting between the sectors.