Maisa de Souza Ribeiro

Aplicação da contabilidade ambiental na indústria madeireira

This research aimed to study the interaction between the lumber industry located in the Mato Grosso part of Amazonia and the environment. We worked with the hypothesis that Environmental Accounting may produce the necessary information to identify alternatives for evaluating investments and environmental expenses in the lumber industry so as to support the management decision-making process. Therefore, the main socioeconomic aspects concerning environment were recovered, as well as some scientific contributions that characterize Environmental Accounting. The case study allowed us to analyze the main social, economic and environmental aspects involving the company, discovering that countless strategic development variables are not considered, which are essential for planning, control and decision making. We identified the need for environmental investments in the production process for the reutilization of solid wood waste, pointing out that the accomplishment of such investments must be preceded by the observation of some relevant aspects, in order to identify the consumed resources and adjust the environmental costs, which should be allocated to the investiments.

A demonstração do valor adicionado como instrumento de mensuração da distribuição da riqueza

As an information vehicle, Accounting faces the task of making available information about the relations between companies and society to its users as one of its great challenges. The Social Balance Sheet in general and the Statement of Value Added - SVA - as one of its complements appear as instruments capable of demonstrating economic as well as social aspects, thus innovating on the traditional focus, which turns them into the richest statements for verifying these relations. Hence, a research was carried out in 416 companies that were taken from Fipecafis Melhores e Maiores database for the Magazine Exame. This survey aimed to evaluate the SVAs verification power with respect to information about companies wealth formation and its distribution to those economic agents that helped to create it, such as proprietors, partners and shareholders, government, external financiers and employees. At the end of the study, it could be affirmed that the indicators taken from the SVA make up an excellent means of evaluating wealth distribution, which is available to society, although without any intent of replacing or even competing with other existing wealth indicators.

Balanço social: avaliação de informações fornecidas por empresas industriais situadas no estado de Santa Catarina

The Social Audit is a statement that was created with a view to disclosing the social responsibility of organizations. This instrument, which has been widely discussed, provides users with accounting information regarding the organizations internal policies on the human promotion of employees and the quality of life in organizations; the formation and distribution of wealth; the organizations attitude in relation to the environment and spontaneous contributions to the community. In Brazil, the preparation of the Social Audit is still not mandatory and there are no official models or indicators for disclosing the data. However, an increasing number of organizations from various sectors are adopting the practice, including the companies analyzed in this research. This study provides a review on the concepts and indicators of the aforementioned report and, basically, evaluates the content of the information provided by the largest companies (by number of employees) in the state of Santa Catarina. The results reveal that Social Audits have been used by companies throughout the State. However, they use different models; disclose the indicators in a wide variety of forms; omit important information and provide data for two periods only, as a result of which Social Audits are not as useful to the users as they potentially could be.

Governança corporativa na América Latina: a relevância dos princípios da OCDE na integridade dos conselhos e autonomia dos conselheiros

Boards of directors are characterized as important elements for good corporate governance. In this regard, the present study aims to associate governance practices of Latin American companies to the principles recommended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, for that region (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile). Among the seven principles recommended for Latin America, this work focused only on the fifth principle, which addresses the Responsibilities of the Board and, more specifically, the recommendations concerning the Boards Integrity and Directors Independence. The main objective is to evaluate companies attitudes in relation to managers responsibilities and supervision as a way to ensure control and the results expected by shareholders. To that end, a questionnaire expressing the major OECD

Evidenciação ambiental dos resíduos sólidos de companhias abertas no Brasil potencialmente poluidoras

This study is motivated by companies obligations to submit environmental information on solid waste in 2010. The research question is as follows: how was environmental information related to the solid waste of public companies in Brazil of environmentally sensitive industries disclosed in 2010? The general method used to answer this question was an analysis of public companies in Brazil of environmentally sensitive industries about of solid waste environmental disclosures in 2010. The following specific objectives were set: (i) to propose a model to identify documents as solid waste environmental disclosures and (ii) to evaluate the level of environmental disclosure and correlate it with financial variables. An analytical model of the solid waste environmental disclosure (Waste-Ede) was constructed for data analysis, which combined the concepts contained in the Environmental Disclosure Evaluation model, national policies regarding solid waste (Federal Law. no. 12.305/2010) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) (2006) guidelines. The results show that most companies did not publish a sustainability report. The non-probabilistic final sample included 86 companies. The results limited to this sample showed that companies are disclosing information on solid waste at the market level (according to the model), with a mean of 12.44 points, and that there was a significant correlation at the 95% level between the Waste-Ede index and the following financial variables: environmental investments, total assets, net equity and gross revenues. In conclusion, in 2010, public companies in Brazil of environmentally sensitive industries that were part of the study most likely complied with regulations because of pressure from investors, given that regulators had no power of enforcement.

A Remuneração dos Capitais Utilizados para Financiamento dos Ativos de Empresas Distribuidoras de Energia Elétrica Medida por Meio da DVA

The electric power sector is hugely important from an economic, political and social standpoint. The wealth created by this sector represented, on average, 2% of Brazil’s GDP in the period from 1998 to 2002. By looking at the financial statements of companies in the sector, one finds a very low rate of investments, but that these firms are still highly indebted. As a result of this debt load and the respective increase in financial expenses, besides the lack of investments, most electricity distributors have been accumulating significant losses. The objective of this study is to examine the way these companies are financing themselves and how the wealth they produce is being distributed to internal and external financial agents. By means of their Value Added Statements (VAS), one can observe that the portion of wealth going to remunerate capital (own and third-party) has gone mainly to external financiers. Our research also shows that in the past three years, electricity distributors have been creating increasing levels of wealth, but the volume of assets necessary for its creation has fallen significantly.

Os efeitos econômicos do rompimento de barragem de resíduos: divulgações nas demonstrações contábeis comparativamente à grande mídia

Brazil followed, through the press, the facts involving the company Samarco S.A., the mining company controlled by Vale SA and BHP Billiton Brazil Ltda., which failed in the conservation of their waste deposits and became responsible for significant impacts environmental, social and economic order. Inside this context, the accounting and financial information related to the environment become relevant due to represent the expressive sacrifice of economic benefits and by relate themselves with stakeholders interested in accountability, equity situationxa0 and effects on performance . Thus, known the main effects of the accident in Mariana, Minas Gerais, the goal of the study was to verify the disclosures of provisions and contingent liabilities related to what happened in the involved companies´ financial statements. It was found that the values defined in the Terms of Transaction and Adjustment of Conduct were recorded and/or inserted in explanatory notes, exerting significant effect on the result and equity situation. The Parent Companies restricted to present a brief comment about the incident, without however to mention any responsibility about the case; but one of them has notified the lawsuit filed by foreign investors due to the lack of information about the case and the risks involved.

Analysis of CDM projects' potential benefits

Objective – The main goal of this study is to identify and assess, within sustainability reports, information concerning potential carbon credits obtained through projects carried out under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) assumptions, as well as to assess CDM project experts’ perceptions of obstacles to entering carbon credit markets. Design/methodology/approach – exploratory, descriptive, bibliographical and documental research, and interviews. Theoretical basis Research was based on the concepts of sustainability, especially as to environmental responsibility (CSR); cost-benefit analysis was also considered, since selling carbon credits can be a way of mitigating the trade off between immediate shareholder satisfaction and investment in CSR. Findings – The perceptions of representatives from carbon credit projects’ certifying companies was examined by means of a series of interviews – concluding that savings in costs, business marketing and certifications are even greater motivators than carbon credits themselves. We estimated that, through energy efficiency, the projects discussed in 2011 sustainability reports would be capable of saving approximately 538 million reais in costs. In addition, 40 million reais, considering the rate of the euro and of securities on December 31, 2014, would be gained through the sale of carbon credits. Practical implications – Thus, this research helps to demonstrate the significant potential for further financial gains that companies may obtain through energy efficiency and habitat restructuring, whether by taking advantage of CO2 reduction brought about by such projects, or by developing new projects that continue to benefit economy, society and the environment.

Analysis of the information quality of reports on CDM projects in light of the legitimacy approach

This article analyses the information level of projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (carbon credits) in the reports disclosed by Brazilian companies, in light of the theory of legitimacy. In this survey, we examined 163 projects approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology, divided into two groups: sanitary landfills and energy cogeneration from biomass. These projects were assessed under three dimensions in 18 categories. The method used was based on content analysis, to identify from the proposed categories the information level of each dimension. We find there was little conclusive information on the social dimension offered about the projects examined, with more information provided on the environmental and economic intentions of the projects. However, it cannot be said that the project reports made a significant contribution to the maintenance of legitimacy of the participating companys actions. Besides this, there was little conclusive information on the expected economic returns as a means of communication with stakeholders, and thus as a way to legitimise the actions.

The responsibilities of the board: The level of compliance of Latin Americans’ companies to the OECD principles of corporate governance

Purpose of article – Board of Directors are characterized as essential elements in the structure of corporate governance. Hence, this study aimed at identifying the governance practices of Latin-American companies in relation to the fifth principle – “Responsibilities of the Board” – recommended by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for this region (Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Chile). n nDesign/methodology/approach – To that end, the legislation and corporate practices of companies in the four countries were studied so as to identify legal provisions on the subject and additional procedures adopted by such companies comparatively to OECD recommendations. n nFindings – The results showed that Mexico was the country with the highest level of full compliance with OECD recommendations, followed by Argentina, Brazil, and lastly by Chile. They also showed that a lot of improvement still needs to be made so as to ensure the responsibilities of the board in terms of integrity, efficacy remuneration dissemination, and technical competence. n nResearch limitations/implications – This study was restricted to only four countries in Latin America: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and Chile. This procedure is justifiable by the fact that OECD designed its recommendations based on these four countries. It is also important to point out that this study has focused only on Principle V of OECD (2004), concerning the Responsibilities of the Board of Directors. n nOriginality/Value of article – This study is justified by the need to understand and disseminate Latin-American practices in face of the region-specific governance recommendations designed by OECD, notably on the behavior of the Board of Directors. This region has developing countries with an active stock market. The region presents great potential for economic development, hence the need for these types of studies.