Development of an environmental reporting framework for the industrial sector in Tanzania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop an environmental reporting framework for the Tanzanian industrial sector. To achieve the purpose, the study started by developing a disclosure index, which was used to measure the current extent of environmental reporting in Tanzania. There were two phases in the process of developing the environmental disclosure index (EDI) for the Tanzanian industrial sector. The first phase involved identifying and refining the items for disclosure from the literature. In particular the studies on environmental reporting/disclosure were reviewed and the items to be included in the initial disclosure index were identified. The second phase involved the development of the final disclosure index using the Delphi inquiry method. In the Delphi inquiry, knowledgeable experts in environmental issues were consulted and asked for their opinion on the items proposed, whether the item should be retained, removed or any addition of new item. Therefore, the role of the experts was, first to confirm and validate items to be included in the EDI, and second, to assess the importance of the disclosure of each item by allocating weight to every item. The extent of environmental reporting in Tanzania was measured by using the EDI developed. The annual and environmental reports from various organisations operating in Tanzania were requested and read to determine the current extent of environmental reporting. The results indicated that the information reported by organisations operating in Tanzania mostly came from the categories ‘Organisational context’ and ‘Management performance, policies and systems. The information from ‘environmental performance’ category was left unreported. After the current extent of environmental reporting has been explored, the environmental reporting framework (ERF) was developed. The framework intended to provide guidance on environmental reporting to organisations (from the industrial sector) of any size operating in the country. In particular the framework provided the guidance on four steps to be followed when preparing environmental reports and the content to be included in the reports. After the ERF was developed, it was tested to investigate its applicability using two case studies. The results indicated that the steps to be followed when preparing environmental reports were valid and implementable.