Disclosure of voluntary non-financial reports: why don’t brazilian companies publish sustainability or integrated reports?

Abstract

The practice of voluntary disclosure of social and environmental information in Brazil is common among companies listed in Brasil Bolsa Balcão (B3), which led the institution to monitor and stimulate the transparency of such practice through the Relate or Explain initiative. Seeking to explore the participation of companies in the initiative, this study analyzes the justifications presented by the companies in the period from 2012 to 2019 for the non-disclosure of Sustainability Report (RS) or Integrated Reporting (IR). From the content analysis of the annual reports of relate or explain it was possible to verify the companies’ suitand the categorization of the justifications presented. The results indicate that on average 53.2% of the companies listed in B3 joined the Relate or Explain in the period, and of these, 55.9% claim to publish RS or IR or similar report. The other 44.1% presented a total of 832 justifications in the period for not doing it. Of these, 226 (27.2%) were categorized as without justification. Companies that do not publish justify that they do not do so for the following more recurrent reasons: they do not see the need or are not in the company’s priority (15.5%), because they are studying the possibility (14.1%) and because they already develop other sustainable actions (9.4%). The study contributes to the identification of the reasons for non-corporate socio-environmental dissemination and with the discussion and implementation of policies on the subject.