Vol. 5, No. 4 (2017): Regular Issue

The environmental accounting is an important tool for understanding the role played by the natural environment in the economy. Based on a content analysis approach this paper aims to understand the potential effect of some environmental attributes and financial characteristics on corporate environmental disclosure. Content analyses had been carried out on the 2013-2015 annual reports of the leading French firms Listed on CAC 40. The Research results that indicate that the environmental disclosure is positively associated to environmental attributes such as a low amount of hazardous waste, the voluntary adoption of environmental initiatives. Financial attributes, such as firm size, the need for capital, profitability and capital spending, are positively associated with environmental disclosure quality.

The environmental accounting is an important tool for understanding the role played by the natural environment in the economy. Based on a content analysis approach this paper aims to understand the potential effect of some environmental attributes and financial characteristics on corporate environmental disclosure. Content analyses had been carried out on the 2013-2015 annual reports of the leading French firms Listed on CAC 40. The Research results that indicate that the environmental disclosure is positively associated to environmental attributes such as a low amount of hazardous waste, the voluntary adoption of environmental initiatives. Financial attributes, such as firm size, the need for capital, profitability and capital spending, are positively associated with environmental disclosure quality.

Effectiveness evaluation is a fundamental basis for implementing and managing wetland restoration projects. A case study was conducted in the Huangshui National Wetland Park (HNWP) in Qinghai Province to evaluate the effectiveness of the restoration project there. First, a Pressure-State-Response-Services (PSRS) model system to evaluate effectiveness was created. This consisted of 19 indicators, grouped into four broad categories: Pressure, State, Response and Services. Data for 2012 and 2016 were obtained by field investigation, lab tests, questionnaire surveys, and historical data analysis. Weights of these indicators were determined by implementing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and consulting experts. The comprehensive health index (CHI) and restoration effectiveness (RE) were developed to allow for time-specific and region-specific evaluations of wetland restoration programme effectiveness. The results show that the restoration project has improved the health status of the HNWP: the park’s overall CHI increased from 0.319 in 2012 to 0.620 in 2016, representing a RE of 0.301. Spatial and temporal variability in the park’s CHI was observed. Spatially, the CHI values of the Haihu Wetland (region A), Xigang Wetland (region B), Huoshaogou Wetland (region C), and Ninghu Wetland (region D) were 0.629, 0.62, 0.576, and 0.581, respectively, suggesting that regions A and B were in good health while regions C and D were in fair health. In the warm season, the CHI of regions A, B, C, and D were 0.702, 0.685, 0.624, and 0.629, respectively, indicating overall good health. In the cold season, their CHI declined to 0.557, 0.555, 0.527, and 0.533, respectively, indicating fair health. A sensitivity analysis reveals that the PSRS model proposed has good applicability and is sensitive to changes in State and Services indicators. The findings of this case study are expected to provide a reference for future wetland restoration and conservation projects in Qinghai.

Effectiveness evaluation is a fundamental basis for implementing and managing wetland restoration projects. A case study was conducted in the Huangshui National Wetland Park (HNWP) in Qinghai Province to evaluate the effectiveness of the restoration project there. First, a Pressure-State-Response-Services (PSRS) model system to evaluate effectiveness was created. This consisted of 19 indicators, grouped into four broad categories: Pressure, State, Response and Services. Data for 2012 and 2016 were obtained by field investigation, lab tests, questionnaire surveys, and historical data analysis. Weights of these indicators were determined by implementing the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and consulting experts. The comprehensive health index (CHI) and restoration effectiveness (RE) were developed to allow for time-specific and region-specific evaluations of wetland restoration programme effectiveness. The results show that the restoration project has improved the health status of the HNWP: the park’s overall CHI increased from 0.319 in 2012 to 0.620 in 2016, representing a RE of 0.301. Spatial and temporal variability in the park’s CHI was observed. Spatially, the CHI values of the Haihu Wetland (region A), Xigang Wetland (region B), Huoshaogou Wetland (region C), and Ninghu Wetland (region D) were 0.629, 0.62, 0.576, and 0.581, respectively, suggesting that regions A and B were in good health while regions C and D were in fair health. In the warm season, the CHI of regions A, B, C, and D were 0.702, 0.685, 0.624, and 0.629, respectively, indicating overall good health. In the cold season, their CHI declined to 0.557, 0.555, 0.527, and 0.533, respectively, indicating fair health. A sensitivity analysis reveals that the PSRS model proposed has good applicability and is sensitive to changes in State and Services indicators. The findings of this case study are expected to provide a reference for future wetland restoration and conservation projects in Qinghai.

Negative environmental externalities are the impacts caused by organizations to natural resources that lack economic value in the market, such as water, air, etc., authors such as Gray (1992), Tua (1995), Larrinaga (1997), Prugh et al. (1999), Llull (2001), Salas (2015) among others, affirm that they must be incorporated into the cost of the product as a means for sustainable development. Given the interest of the coffee companies of the state of Veracruz to integrate them into their cost of production, a methodology is proposed. The study is carried out applying the Life Cycle of a Product, the Election Experiment Method and Process Costing. The result is that Veracruz coffee companies will be able to identify and classify their negative environmental externalities through the Product Life Cycle, the Election Experiment Method allows them to allocate an economic value and cost per process with the incorporation of a fourth element called "Sustainable Cost" will contribute to its registration and presentation. It is concluded that most of the research has focused on the identification, classification and description of negative environmental externalities and not on methodologies that allow its registration and presentation in the cost of production, which justifies the importance of this study, since for the Veracruz coffee companies have information on externalities that facilitates environmental decisionmaking.

Negative environmental externalities are the impacts caused by organizations to natural resources that lack economic value in the market, such as water, air, etc., authors such as Gray (1992), Tua (1995), Larrinaga (1997), Prugh et al. (1999), Llull (2001), Salas (2015) among others, affirm that they must be incorporated into the cost of the product as a means for sustainable development. Given the interest of the coffee companies of the state of Veracruz to integrate them into their cost of production, a methodology is proposed. The study is carried out applying the Life Cycle of a Product, the Election Experiment Method and Process Costing. The result is that Veracruz coffee companies will be able to identify and classify their negative environmental externalities through the Product Life Cycle, the Election Experiment Method allows them to allocate an economic value and cost per process with the incorporation of a fourth element called "Sustainable Cost" will contribute to its registration and presentation. It is concluded that most of the research has focused on the identification, classification and description of negative environmental externalities and not on methodologies that allow its registration and presentation in the cost of production, which justifies the importance of this study, since for the Veracruz coffee companies have information on externalities that facilitates environmental decisionmaking.

There is an increasing recognition of the importance of cultural ecosystem services of marine habitats for supporting the management of the marine environment. However, these services are still largely unknown compared to other ecosystem services (e.g. provisioning services) owing to the challenge of quantifying and valuing them. Linking human welfare to marine ecosystem services can contribute to the sustainable development of marine areas and use of marine resources. Coralligenous bioconstructions represent a key habitat of the Mediterranean continental shelf because of their structural and functional importance, as well as for their high aesthetic value. In this study, we considered SCUBA diving frequentation in the Apulia region (Mediterranean Sea, Italy) and the generated revenue related to the existence of coralligenous habitat. A market impact of €4.7 M in 2014 was estimated through a survey questionnaire distributed to diving centers across the area (about 1000 km of coastline). Despite the assessment underestimates the impact of coralligenous habitat, it highlights the magnitude of importance of this habitat and the opportunities it provides to local economy. The results emphasise also the potential of including economic analysis to increasing awareness among stakeholders, including the general public and decision makers, in setting priorities for conservation and coastal management decisions.

There is an increasing recognition of the importance of cultural ecosystem services of marine habitats for supporting the management of the marine environment. However, these services are still largely unknown compared to other ecosystem services (e.g. provisioning services) owing to the challenge of quantifying and valuing them. Linking human welfare to marine ecosystem services can contribute to the sustainable development of marine areas and use of marine resources. Coralligenous bioconstructions represent a key habitat of the Mediterranean continental shelf because of their structural and functional importance, as well as for their high aesthetic value. In this study, we considered SCUBA diving frequentation in the Apulia region (Mediterranean Sea, Italy) and the generated revenue related to the existence of coralligenous habitat. A market impact of €4.7 M in 2014 was estimated through a survey questionnaire distributed to diving centers across the area (about 1000 km of coastline). Despite the assessment underestimates the impact of coralligenous habitat, it highlights the magnitude of importance of this habitat and the opportunities it provides to local economy. The results emphasise also the potential of including economic analysis to increasing awareness among stakeholders, including the general public and decision makers, in setting priorities for conservation and coastal management decisions.

Environmental responsibility is an important element of business sustainability. It is operationalised through environmental accounting and reporting, which have become inevitable management tools in modern business. International reporting frameworks, legislation, and the requirements of stakeholders, necessitate thinking about environmental information which businesses should report. Decisions on reporting environmental information is associated with managerial attitudes and expectations. The lack of research, especially in European countries, on the importance of environmental reporting for a company’s management, is the reason for conducting this study. Therefore, the main objective of the research was to investigate managerial attitudes regarding the importance of environmental information for companies stakeholders. A survey was used to collect data. The analysis of the distribution of managers’ responses shows that most respondents believe environmental information is part of corporate social responsibility. From the standpoint of the companies it is ethical to collect and report environmental information. Through the factor analysis of managerial attitudes, research indicates variables of the highest importance in the extracted factor: the usefulness of environmental information for different stakeholders, the importance of exploring stakeholders’ interests, and the importance of ensuring the quantity and quality of environmental information. The extracted factor, labelled as “the importance of environmental reporting” was further defined as a dependent variable in a simple linear regression model in which industry and size of the company were defined as independent variables. Research identifies only the industry of the company as positively and significantly related to dependent variable.

Environmental responsibility is an important element of business sustainability. It is operationalised through environmental accounting and reporting, which have become inevitable management tools in modern business. International reporting frameworks, legislation, and the requirements of stakeholders, necessitate thinking about environmental information which businesses should report. Decisions on reporting environmental information is associated with managerial attitudes and expectations. The lack of research, especially in European countries, on the importance of environmental reporting for a company’s management, is the reason for conducting this study. Therefore, the main objective of the research was to investigate managerial attitudes regarding the importance of environmental information for companies stakeholders. A survey was used to collect data. The analysis of the distribution of managers’ responses shows that most respondents believe environmental information is part of corporate social responsibility. From the standpoint of the companies it is ethical to collect and report environmental information. Through the factor analysis of managerial attitudes, research indicates variables of the highest importance in the extracted factor: the usefulness of environmental information for different stakeholders, the importance of exploring stakeholders’ interests, and the importance of ensuring the quantity and quality of environmental information. The extracted factor, labelled as “the importance of environmental reporting” was further defined as a dependent variable in a simple linear regression model in which industry and size of the company were defined as independent variables. Research identifies only the industry of the company as positively and significantly related to dependent variable.

Actively participating in the global process on climate change, thoroughly implementing the national outline on climate change, and fully imple-menting clean energy development strategy to control the total amount of carbon emissions and reduce carbon emissions intensity, are the inevi-table requirement of large domestic clean energy enterprise development currently. Aimed at how to carry out related work in a carbon con-strained world, this paper shows systematic analysis of what large inte-grated energy enterprises need to do, how to do, who is going to do, and effective measures to be taken to promote and realize the low carbon development.

Actively participating in the global process on climate change, thoroughly implementing the national outline on climate change, and fully imple-menting clean energy development strategy to control the total amount of carbon emissions and reduce carbon emissions intensity, are the inevi-table requirement of large domestic clean energy enterprise development currently. Aimed at how to carry out related work in a carbon con-strained world, this paper shows systematic analysis of what large inte-grated energy enterprises need to do, how to do, who is going to do, and effective measures to be taken to promote and realize the low carbon development.

Pakistan is currently facing energy crisis in the form of electricity and natural gas load shedding due to the insufficient availability of indigenous fossil fuels. On the other hand, the country possesses huge renewable energy resources (RERs) which are merely harnessed due to lack of institutional and governmental support. This paper is designed to discuss the past and current energy demand and supply situation in the country followed by an assessment of the potential for RERs which can be harnessed for meeting energy demand of the country. An extensive literature review is undertaken in this study, focusing therein the potential of RERs in the country covering hydel, solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy resources. It is revealed from this review that the highest potential out of all RERs exist for solar energy, i.e. 2900 GW followed by wind energy 346 GW, hydropower 100 GW and biomass energy 12.74 GW. Besides, it is observed that the highest number of ongoing potential energy projects pertain to mega hydropower generation. The research concludes that Pakistan needs to invest more and more in hydel energy and keep the pace of research and investment in the solar and wind energy as much as possible so that country indigenously self-sufficient and economically viable for all types of RERs in the long run.

Pakistan is currently facing energy crisis in the form of electricity and natural gas load shedding due to the insufficient availability of indigenous fossil fuels. On the other hand, the country possesses huge renewable energy resources (RERs) which are merely harnessed due to lack of institutional and governmental support. This paper is designed to discuss the past and current energy demand and supply situation in the country followed by an assessment of the potential for RERs which can be harnessed for meeting energy demand of the country. An extensive literature review is undertaken in this study, focusing therein the potential of RERs in the country covering hydel, solar, wind, biomass and geothermal energy resources. It is revealed from this review that the highest potential out of all RERs exist for solar energy, i.e. 2900 GW followed by wind energy 346 GW, hydropower 100 GW and biomass energy 12.74 GW. Besides, it is observed that the highest number of ongoing potential energy projects pertain to mega hydropower generation. The research concludes that Pakistan needs to invest more and more in hydel energy and keep the pace of research and investment in the solar and wind energy as much as possible so that country indigenously self-sufficient and economically viable for all types of RERs in the long run.