As an issue, the environment has been growing in significance in the minds of the community and, more recently, in the minds of business. Everyone remembers the Exxon's Valdez disaster, Shell's run-ins with Greenpeace and Nike's sweatshop scandal. Whether or not these events represented true ecological or social disasters is hotly debated, but one thing is not – they all hit the major news outlets and were public relations nightmares. To avoid such nightmares, many companies are opting for transparency not only in their financial statements, but also in their nonfinancial information, such as reports on their environmental record, social responsibility and sustainability (McCrary, 2002). In this context the aim of this paper is to examine the nature of environmental accounting and to describe how companies are responding to pressures to keep accounting records of the impact that their productive processes have on the environment.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- The Issue of Environmental Accounting
- Environmental Accounting: Past, Present and Future
- Environmental Accounting: An Overview
- The Challenges of Environmental Accounting
- Conclusion
Objectives and Key Themes
This paper aims to analyze the nature of environmental accounting and explore how companies respond to pressures to keep accounting records of their environmental impact. It examines the evolution of environmental accounting, its core concepts, and the challenges companies face in implementing it.
- The development and definition of environmental accounting
- The role of environmental accounting in managing environmental impact
- The challenges and obstacles in implementing environmental accounting
- The importance of transparency and disclosure in environmental reporting
- The future of environmental accounting in the context of increasing environmental regulation
Chapter Summaries
- Introduction: This chapter provides an overview of the increasing significance of environmental issues in business and the importance of transparency in non-financial information, including environmental records. It introduces the concept of environmental accounting and its purpose.
- The Issue of Environmental Accounting: This chapter defines accounting at the organizational level and distinguishes between financial accounting (FA) and management accounting (MA). It highlights the importance of linking environmental concerns to accounting systems to motivate environmentally responsible behaviour.
- Environmental Accounting: Past, Present and Future: This chapter discusses the origins of environmental accounting, tracing its evolution from "social responsibility accounting" to "environmental accounting." It examines the development of environmental accounting in various countries, including Germany, Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, and the Philippines.
- Environmental Accounting: An Overview: This chapter explores different approaches to environmental accounting, including environmental financial accounting (EFA) and environmental management accounting (EMA). It highlights the different perspectives of financial and management accountants on environmental accounting and its significance in reducing environmental impact.
- The Challenges of Environmental Accounting: This chapter examines the obstacles companies face in disclosing environmental issues, including the difficulty in assigning prices to natural resources, the potential for "bad news" in the short term, and the lack of consistent regulation and reporting standards.
Keywords
Environmental accounting, financial accounting, management accounting, environmental management accounting (EMA), environmental financial accounting (EFA), environmental costs, sustainability, corporate social responsibility, environmental reporting, transparency, disclosure, environmental legislation, green accounting.
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- Ecaterina Volosin (Author), 2008, Environmental accounting, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/116913
