Corporate Water Disclosure: what information is assured?

Abstract

The corporate water disclosure has its relevance from the credibility attributed to the information that is externally assured. Thus, this study investigates items of water disclosure submitted to external assurance by brazilian companies listed on the B3 from 2017 to 2018. For this, we used GRI Standards Remissive Summary and Independent Assurance Reports attachment in RS to collect and analyze the water information that is disclosed and assured externally. The results demonstrated that the information disclosed reports on potential impacts and risks associated with the organization’s use of water. These indicators are directly linked to water quality, operating costs and ecological impacts, which permit organizations to assess regulatory and reputation risks. In addition to, the predominance of physical information about water use necessitates that the monetary information to be incorporated into the development of corporate water accounting. Also, analysis of GRI remissive summaries and assurance reports documented the low incidence
of companies that the content assurance individually and revealed superficial assurance processes. These findings suggest a lack of transparency and reinforce the important debate about the effective contribution of external assurance to promote sustainability within organizations.