ABSTRACT
Several countries have made environmental reporting into a statutory requirement. This chapter explores the development of Danish environmental reporting, describes the contents of and requirements made by the Danish Environmental Reporting Act (DERA), report some results of studies of Green Accounts, and addresses important development issues. During 1992, the Danish Steel Works published what were referred to as 'Green Accounts' as a separate part of their Annual Financial Report, which included a mass balance and a description of the company's environmental impacts. Generally, the Green Accounts must reflect the same financial period as that covered by the company's financial statement. There seems to be a trend in Danish environmental reporting towards increased use of third-party verification of the Green Accounts, which includes large companies such as Shell, DiverseyLever and TeleDanmark. The chapter also looks at the environmental performance evaluation criteria used in the Green Accounts.
