Impression management in water reporting: Analysis of the impact of conceptual frameworks changes on companies disclosures

Abstract

In 2015, United Nations issued the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. In this Agenda, 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) are addressed. Two of them are related to water: Goal 6 – Clear water and sanitation and Goal 14 – Life below water. One year later, in 2016, in the twenty-second session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 22), water issues were considered as part of the implementation of Paris Climate Change Agreement. Issues related to water are receiving increasingly attention by stakeholders, governments and companies that are being called on to improve water resources management and to disclose reliable information about it. To respond to these new challenges, our research has a dual purpose: first, to analyse how companies have reacted to the inclusion of water, in 2015, in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Climate A list; second, to verify if the water reporting is used as an impression management strategy, in a sample of companies listed in CDP Climate A list. In this paper, we fulfil the first objective starting with a quantitative analysis of water-related disclosure in the annual information reported by 14 companies from materials sector, that use the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) with A application level. This paper contributes to the accounting academic engagement, for stakeholders’ comprehension of sustainability information and for the regulators, governments and others entities, who are engaged in preparation of conceptual frameworks for climate and water reporting.