Title: Environmental Reporting- An Evaluation of the Sustainability Performance of BHEL

Author- Animesh Bhattacharjee, Research Scholar, Dept. of Commerce, Tripura University.

Email: bhatt.ani725@gmail.com, Phone no. +918014464882/7005227099.

Abstract

Factors like clean air, water and land is the foundation of life therefore, any negative impact
on such factors will automatically impact life itself. Due to rapid industrialisation and
economic growth environmental degradation like air pollution, dumping of harmful
chemicals in rivers, deforestation etc. has intensified and with that the concern of the
stakeholders has also became serious. Due to raised concerns of the stakeholders
environmental accounting has become an essential branch of accounting. Although
environmental accounting and reporting in India is in their developing stage but handful of
companies have developed mechanisms to record environmental cost and expenditure and
report it to external stakeholders through sustainability report. These companies are making
efforts to reduce their negative impact on environment through ways like installing solar
plants in their premises, using cleaner fuels, reducing Co2 emission into the air and recycling
of water. The present study attempts to investigate the initiatives of one such company
namely Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL) in conservation of the environment. The
paper’s main objectives are to assess whether or not the company furnishes environmental
information in accordance with the GRI guidelines and to measure the performance of the
company on the basis of the selected environmental performance indicators. The data for the
study is collected from the sustainability report of the company. The period of the study is
five years for which five environmental performance indicators have been identified and
analysed. The key findings of the study indicate that the company provides adequate
information on the environmental performance indicators in accordance to Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI) guidelines. During the period of the study the analysis of the data indicates
reduction in the consumption of resources like coal and diesel in the energy mix. The
company is also able to recycle and reuse a significant portion of water used by
manufacturing units during the period 2016-17.

Keywords: Environmental Reporting, Global Reporting Initiative, Environmental

performance indicators.