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Quality evaluation of water disclosure of Chinese papermaking enterprises based on accelerated genetic algorithm Chaoran He 1 , Juqin Shen 2 , Jiawei Xu 1 , Fuhua Sun 2 * & Bing Wang 3 As the carrier of enterprise water resources management disclosure, water information disclosure is a means of expression of enterprises’ environmental responsibility. First, a corporate water information disclosure quality evaluation index system and evaluation method are established, and with the help of the projection tracing method of accelerated genetic algorithm, 27 paper companies in China are selected as a sample and the disclosure quality level is analyzed empirically. Then, the analysis is carried out in terms of three changes in vertical trends, horizontal trends and changes in laws, regulations and policies, and the results show that Chinese paper and paper product enterprises have low quality of water information disclosure, weak disclosure content and low voluntary disclosure. Finally, feasible suggestions are made based on the evaluation of disclosure issues. As an important traditional manufacturing industry, the paper industry is closely related to social develop- ment and ecological environment, and is also an important part of water consumption. As a disclosure carrier of corporate water resources management, water information disclosure describes the relevant information of corporate water use and drainage through monetary performance or volume, and discloses non-financial reports on corporate water management, strategy and other business risks and opportunities to stakeholders (The CEO Water Mandate, 2014), which occupies an important part of environmental information disclosure. With the intensification of global climate change and the increasing strain on industrial water use, the importance of corporate water information disclosure has made Chinese enterprises have begun to pay attention to their own water resource management, and gradually integrate water resource management into high-level supervision (Carbon Disclosure Project China, 2020). The research field of water resources management mainly focuses on the influence of macro factors on enterprise water resources management from the perspective of economics 1 , the strategy of corporate water resources from the perspective of management 2 , the improvement of enterprise water resources accounting capacity from the perspective of water management accounting 3 , and the development of comprehensive framework of enterprise water management accounting 4 . Whether in practice or theoretical research, water environment issues have gradually been paid attention to by enterprises. Green development with the goal of "water-saving priority" has become one of the important directions for the development of the paper and paper products industry. According to the statistics compiled by the China Environmental Statistical Yearbook, the wastewater dis- charge of the paper industry accounted for 12.3% in 2020, second only to chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing, and is the second largest industry in China’s industrial wastewater discharge. Although the Administrative Measures for the Legal Disclosure of Enterprise Environmental Information reviewed by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment clarifies the accurate and complete disclosure of environmental information by enterprises. However, in the actual enterprise report disclosure, the information disclosure on water consumption, total groundwater withdrawal control and wastewater emission reduction is far lower than expected, and there are problems such as incomplete and inconsistent water information disclosure and weak water performance disclosure. Water information disclosure by enterprises not only promotes the transformation of enterprises from extensive management to refined management mode, but also optimizes the water resource management mechanism of enterprises, which is more important for sustainable water resources management 5 . With the increasing attention of society to the environment, the information disclosure of listed companies has
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1 Business School, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China. 2 College of Agricultural Science and Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China. 3 Xuchang Bureau of Hydrology and Water Resources Investigation, Xuchang 461000, China. * email: ccranhh@163.com
Scientific Reports |
(2023) 13:12225
| https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-39307-y
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