Environmental Accounting
What is environmental accounting?
The term environmental accounting is frequently used within the accounting and environmental management literatures. Environmental accounting is a broader term that relates to the provision of environmental-performance-related information to stakeholders both within, and outside, an organisation.
According to the United States Environment Protection Agency (US EPA):
An important function of environmental accounting is to bring environmental costs to the attention of corporate stakeholders who may be able and motivated to identify ways of reducing or avoiding those costs while at the same time improving environmental quality.
While environmental accounting can be 'corporate-focussed', it should also be appreciated that environmental accounting can also be undertaken at a national or regional level.
2)What is environmental management accounting?
Environmental management accounting is a subset of environmental accounting. It is generally used to provide information for decision-making within an organisation, although the information generated could be ed for other purposes, such as for external reporting
The report, the first of its kind to be released in Australia, also found that there were many similarities across these case studies and improvements that could be made to accounting systems. It found businesses are keen to adopt better environmental practices, but need guidance on how this can be achieved without impacting negatively on their books.
The report demonstrated the need for businesses and industry to seriously consider reforming their internal accounting systems so that environmental costs are articulated correctly.
At the moment many environment related costs are hidden. For example, in many cases waste costs were found hidden within other accounts. At AMP these were often part of the rental charge paid by the company and it was therefore difficult to monitor and manage them. At Methodist Ladies College...
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