Green Disclosure in Financial Statements: Characteristics of Environmental Information and Possible Explanations for Voluntary Disclosure

This study analyzes environmental disclosure in Financial Statements in the 2006, from a sample of companies listed in the Bolsa de Valores de Sao Paulo (BOVESPA) that belong to sectors sensitive to the environment. At first, an analysis of the relationship between the news (good, bad or neutral), evidence (declarative, quantitative non-monetary or quantitative monetary) and the location (management discussion, financial statements or footnotes) of environmental information has been conducted utilizing two techniques: Simple Correspondence Analysis (ANACOR) and Multiple Correspondence Analysis (HOMALs). Following, the study examined the factors that explain voluntary environmental disclosure with the help of fatorial analysis and multiple regression analysis. A total of six hypothesis have been formulated and tested regarding the company's size, profitability, leverage, auditing firm, participation in the ISE, and presence in the international markets. Results evidence that there is relation between the information that presents a good evidence, presented in a declarative form and located in the management discussion. On the other hand, information presenting a bad news is usualy presented in a quantitative monetary manner. Regression analysis evidence that the factor "size" (total assets, revenues and shareldolder's equity), and the variables auditing firm and participation in the ISE are relevant at a significant level of 5% in explaining the amount of voluntarily environmental disclosure in financial statements.