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by some of the largest companies in the world are bad and statistics regularly ignoring vital information, according to the most comprehensive study yet performed.

The survey of more than 4000 corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and surveys undertaken by a team from the University of Leeds found "irrelevant data, unfounded allegations, the lack data and inaccurate figures "- a discovery that has cast serious doubt on the booming sector.

Among the most colorful and errors of omissions made by some of the largest companies in the world were a company whose carbon footprint is four times larger than for the whole world, and a manufacturer Automotive Group and power as quite legally, managed to remove a large coal plant from its history of pollution.

problems include regular business ignoring the data from individual countries or group of companies - including many in China and Brazil - two of the largest economies in the world

can not pick up or ignore the data from various sources has been so rampant that BT, which has won awards for his reporting on CSR, said zero energy and water , waste and transport of several of its international operations in 2007 and the following year the company did not say they were zero, but that left more than half of the draft table. Overall, fewer than one in six of the companies surveyed said greenhouse gas emissions throughout its operations, said the university, and many do not clearly establish that the activities were covered.

Leeds study, conducted jointly with the School of Management Euromed Marseille, France, comes just weeks after a major report and accountants KPMG, which found that nearly two-thirds of the largest in the 34 countries studied have been reports of CSR, and that Britain was the world leader with a notification rate of 100%.

Previous studies of CSR has also welcomed some of the most vilified in the world, raising doubts about the value of practice.

"The quality of environmental information in the sustainability reporting is still terrible, sometimes, even today," said Dr. Ralf Barkemeyer, professor of CSR at Leeds, and the a team leader. "In the financial reports to set aside an undisclosed portion of the company in the calculation of the benefit would be a scandal. Sustainability reporting is a common practice.

"Put provocatively, companies get points for knowing where to go, but no one seems to see if that's where they go. Aspiration replaces the performance."

Although some of the blunders were clearly errors instead of attempts to distort the image, they were wrong by factors enormous, and sometimes for several years in a row, suggesting that it was not read or taken seriously by the staff of the company, said Barkemeyer. In one example, the power of the ABB Group report on sulfur emissions by a factor of 1000 kilotonnes used instead of tons for three consecutive years. In another case, the relevant staff of a large Swedish group did not even know he had a pulp and paper until the researchers said it was the subsidiary of an acquisition.

Although data quality has improved over the past 10 years or more that CSR has become commonplace, and even the study period 2005-2009, many problems remain, even with the issue very public with information on carbon emissions, he said Barkemeyer. For example, a forthcoming study on this specific issue has found "every company has big problems."

Tom Woollard, consultants, environmental resource management, said, however, that CSR reports also helped many companies improve significantly, including broader issues such as staff dealing with health and safety and because of the publication of data forced to deal with problems, and in some cases only discovered that the problems were at their worst when the data were collected. "Public EHS [environmental health and safety] information has led to a remarkable level of transparency and improved performance in a wide range of issues in a relatively short time," said Woollard. "Our experience working with some of the largest multinationals in the world is to put more efforts in achieving the objectives under -. Only then can make a real difference in performance "

Barkemeyer said improvements must come from public scrutiny and more companies should follow the example of BHP Billiton, the mining group, has asked KPMG to review and sign their reported emissions " Our goal is better when it is voluntary [that the rules of global use of CSR Reporting Initiative], because companies can react more quickly, but in some cases, make no effort, and if we make an effort terms of control to be blamed, "he said.

In a statement, BT said: "As noted by research from the University of Leeds, this is a new and evolving science, and is particularly complex when it comes attempt to standardize measurement and the relationship between international data from dozens of countries. collection is much more complex than it is in the UK and in some countries, data are not only available. In cases where reliable data does not have a zero appears in the report. Let's review the points raised and, where appropriate, seek to update our CSR reports in the years to come. "

telecom operator, apparently generated more than 99% of its waste from offshore operations in the relatively small country of Belgium in 2007 and 2008

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