Environmental costs disclosure in manure and fertilizer business segment

Abstract

This study aimed to verify how the Brazilian companies of the segment of manure and fertilizers have been classifying and evidencing its costs of environmental nature. Methodologically, this is a descriptive study, developed through the technique of content analysis supported by the Atlas.ti® software. The management reports and financial statements for the year of 2008 from four companies in the segment were analyzed. The results indicate that, in general, companies are concerned with social and environmental issues, but are restricted to report purely qualitative information of this nature. It was veri.ed that even with the posture change from the part of the companies in relation to the environmental understanding, it can be af. rmed that there is still a lot to improve, mainly regarding the combination of the environmental information with the reports and traditional .nancial demonstrations, making possible a greater transparency to the users of these information.