A number of firms voluntarily disclose environmental information. Many of these firms are listed at the website for Greenbiz.com, which can be accessed via the chapter web links at the Interactive Study Center on http://www.thomsonedu.com/ accounting/hansen. Among those listed are PepsiCo, McDonald's, and Baxter.

PepsiCo reports some interesting environmental activities. Access Greenbiz.com, select a sample of these firms, and read their environmental disclosures. See how many of the following questions you can answer:

1. How much has been saved due to environmental actions? (Try Baxter.)

2. Describe the packaging reduction efforts and the resulting savings (savings can be expressed in nonfinancial terms).

3. Describe the recycling activities both for their own products as well as the mate- rials they receive from suppliers.

4. How much reduction in contaminating residues has been reported?

5. Can you find firms that use bar graphs and pie charts to describe their environ- mental performance?

6. What kinds of performance measures are being used? Can you relate these to the core strategic objectives discussed in this chapter?

7. What reasons do they offer for providing environmental information?

8. How do the environmental reports compare? Select a sample of six to eight, and comment on the different approaches. Which report did you like best, and why?