Investigating the level of disclosure of emissions by the top ten manufacturing companies in South Africa

Abstract

Throughout the world, countries and companies are directing their attention towards actions to protect the planet, and an important focus area during various initiatives is the aim to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climatic system. Various targets are set by governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the South African Government is, among others, investigating a carbon tax policy to facilitate their transition to a greener economy. As the global manufacturing industry emits up to 43 percent of the global CO2 emissions, it is evident that the companies in this industry are expected to play a significant role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions going forward. What gets measured, gets managed, and formal institutions and regulatory establishments, such as, but not limited to, the Global Reporting Initiative, Greenhouse Gas Protocol and Carbon Disclosure Project provide recommendations and guidelines for companies regarding emissions disclosure in their sustainability reports as well as how to account for emissions inventories. During this research, the integrated and sustainability reports of the top ten manufacturing companies listed on the JSE were reviewed and the disclosures of emissions were evaluated against a checklist that was developed through a literature review comprising various sources. From the results of the research, it is evident that all the companies reviewed are aware of the importance of emissions disclosure and the impact that emissions have on climate change. All the companies reviewed did participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project in 2013, and all the companies make use of some formal document as guideline for their emissions reporting. Companies, in general, adhere more to the qualitative, narrative type of requirements than to the more computable, performance-related reporting of emissions. It is recommended for the top manufacturing companies to improve on the emissions performance reporting. As a very limited sample was selected for this research, and no comparison periods were reviewed to measure the level of improvement of the emissions reporting, it is recommended for future research to focus on emissions performance reporting measured over a period of time to identify an improvement in emissions reporting of the top manufacturing companies.