Holland and Foo (2003) find differe

Holland and Foo (2003) find differences in disclosure practices between the UK and the US. UK environmental disclosures are clearly identified in annual reports, because practices are driven by management systems and a proactive approach bymanagers. By contrast, US disclosures are driven by regulation (Holland & Foo, 2003). Aerts et al. (2008) find that North
American firms make more environmental disclosure related to expenditure and risk and remediation than European firms, while European firms disclose more information regarding sustainable development and environmental management. Furthermore, two papers that investigate country differences in the provision of voluntary assurance statements to accompany sustainability reports (Kolk & Perego, 2010; Simnett et al., 2009) find that the legal environment in countries predicts the likelihood of companies providing assurance statements. However, for Australia, the US and the UK, these
differences appear to be too small to make predictions regarding the views of shareholders.