How can we measure a firm's environmental footprint independently of what it chooses to report?

This week, Matthias Breuer presented ongoing research from our Accounting & Sustainability Reporting group at the Leibniz Institute SAFE brownbag seminar, tackling exactly that question.
Building on recent advances in spatial environmental monitoring and modeling, the project combines global environmental data with the locations and financials of hundreds of millions of firms worldwide. The result is a set of independent, comprehensive, and localized measures of firms' contributions to environmental issues.

These measures complement corporate disclosures, which are often limited in credibility and scope — typically covering only a handful of listed firms and select pollutants, and reported at an aggregate level. Independent, localized measures can serve as a check on those reports and help identify damaging impacts, whether or not a firm discloses them. Such evidence is pivotal for designing effective mitigation policies.

Thanks to the Leibniz Institute SAFE for a great discussion.