ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS ACCORDING TO THE POLLUTING IMPACT POTENTIAL IN LAW 10165/2000

Abstract

Current paper analyzes whether the environmental impact potential of entrepreneur activities, classified by Law 10165/2000, affected the environmental costs of Brazilian firms between 2009 and 2013. The firms´ environmental costs were collected in Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) reports prepared by the firms themselves. Data analyses employed multiple linear regressions to calculate the amount of environmental costs borne by firms with regard to potential impact level on the environment. Indicator EN31 was employed to calculate environmental costs, according to GRI standard, revealing the amount of environmental costs by firms during the period, identified as Operational Expenditures (OPEX). Results are not conclusive on the influence of the potential environment impact level to determine environmental costs during the period analyzed. Discarding some presuppositions of the linear regression model of ordinary minimum squares, the potential pollution level does not affect costs spent by the firms to minimize the impacts on the environment. Moreover, since the firms´ size has a negative relationship with environment costs, the greater the firm, the less are the costs incurred with regard to the environment.