ABSTRACT
Corporate environmental reporting first emerged during a period of social accounting, which began in the early 1970s and occurred principally in North America. The current wave of environmental reporting began in 1989 when Norsk Hydro, Norway's largest industrial group, published its first report. A spate of bad publicity in 1987, as a result of actions by environmental campaigners, caused the company to closely examine its environmental performance. The US is the country where mandatory reporting requirements are most stringent. The Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) requirement of the 1986 Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Title III of the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA), obliges companies employing over 10 people full-time to provide annual emissions data for 307 toxic chemicals. In 1980 the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) became law. The Act was designed to force responsible parties to clean up land contaminated by such activities as dumping and waste storage.
