Environmental Management Accounting

How does a corporation know it emits carbon? Acquiring such knowledge starts with the classification of environmentally relevant consumption information. This paper visits the corporate location at which this underlying element for their knowledge is assembled to give rise to carbon emissions. Using an Actor-network theory (ANT) framework, the aim is to investigate the actors who bring together the elements needed to classify their carbon emission sources and unpack the heterogeneous relations drawn on.

Based on an ethnographic study of corporate agents of ecological modernisation over a period of 13 months, this paper provides an exploration of three cases of enacting classification. Drawing on Actor-Network theory, we problematise the silencing of a range of possible modalities of consumption facts and point to the ontological ethics involved in such performances. In a context of global warming and corporations construing themselves as able and suitable to manage their emissions, and, additionally, given that the construction of carbon emissions has performative con-sequences, the underlying practices need to be declassified, i.e. opened for public scrutiny. Hence the paper concludes by arguing for a collective engagement with the ontological politics of carbon.

Globalisation has boosted the demand for a more transparent accounting of corporate responsibilities encompassing social, economic and environmental dimensions. Proactive companies search for competitive advantage in markets by differentiating themselves from competitors. One way to do this is to engage in corporate social responsibility. This trend raises the issues of whether any connection between corporate social responsibility and competitiveness exists or even whether engagement in corporate social responsibility contributes to competitiveness. On the basis of an empirical study this article discusses the connections between corporate social responsibility and competitiveness of Finnish firms. The study by VTT and TKK Dipoli explored this connection from the following angles: first, how companies take into account corporate social responsibility requirements of stakeholders, second, how corporate social responsibility requirements guide business activities and decision making of companies and, third, whether and how socially responsible actions enhance firms’ competitiveness. The empirical study consists of case studies in companies identified to be leaders in corporate social responsibility and of a company survey with 150 respondents. As with several other studies, this study also provides support to the existence of a positive connection between corporate social responsibility and competitiveness. The chapter discusses the results of the study and identifies implications, recommendations and proposals for further research on corporate social responsibility and environmental management accounting.

Tourism industry has become an important part of Indian economy, and tourism development has been, however, concentrated to a few areas. Accumulation of tourism activities has reached the critical stage in most of the tourism centers, which pose serious threats to the natural environment. The Bhyundar Valley of Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve (NDBR) in Uttarakhand State of the Indian Himalaya is a burning example of such problems. Land use/cover changes, deforestation and accumulation of garbage are some of the negative impacts of unregulated tourism in the valley. Unsustainable activities of tourists and villagers in the valley make such problems very severe. To deal with the ongoing problems and ensure community involvement in tourism management and environmental conservation, the Biosphere Reserve Authority introduced ecotourism in the form of Eco Development Committees (EDCs) in the Bhyundar Valley. Study reveals that many problems associated with tourism have been minimized to some extent with the help of EDCs but few are still prevailing in valley. However, the existing attempts to conserve the valley from the negative effects of tourism are inadequate and modifications are needed in the current initiatives.

Literature review about corporate social responsibility (CSR) suggests that there are organisational benefits to be gained from unintentional discretionary expenditure in laudable behaviour. With this in mind, the methodology integrates insights from the ‘stakeholder theory’ and the ‘resource-based view theory of the firm’ to sharpen the strategic base for CSR investment. Quantitative and qualitative research techniques have been used to discover how business organisations are creating shared value for themselves and for society. The main study was carried out amongst hotel enterprises in Malta. The quantitative analysis tested the relationship between Strategic CSR (in terms of the organisational benefits) against the firms’ commitment, behaviour and resources devoted to CSR. Secondly the qualitative phase of this study involved an analysis of interviews with owner-managers across the Maltese hospitality industry and with experts who are responsible for setting policies in the tourism regulatory context. The results have indicated that responsible behaviour led to the firms’ financial performance and market standing, effective human resources management and operational efficiencies. Following the empirical findings a model representing the ‘creation of shared value’ for business and society has been put forward.

Investigates how environmental consultants from a developing country context could contribute to the dissemination of environmental management accounting. Specifically looks at the roles of environmental consultants in Philippines. The study finds the content focused roles bear importance besides the intermediary role that the consultants can assume to disseminate EMA. To elaborate, there is a need for consultants to partner local government agencies and act as an intermediary facilitating two way communication between companies as well as responsible agencies.

This paper explore the feasibility of integrating material flow cost accounting (MFCA) technique with existing environmental management systems (EMS) in a brewery process for improved waste-reduction decisions and increased environmental performance. Decisions to reduce wastewater generation in the past have focused on end-of-pipe approach, with little attention paid to the costs of generating brewery wastewater resulting in negative environmental impact. A case study was performed in a micro-brewery which provides evidence that applying MFCA supports and can improve waste-reduction decisions by brewery managers. The paper highlights the gains of applying MFCA from the case study with improvements in cost savings and increased environmental performance. The paper suggests that a significant implication for micro-breweries in South Africa is the availability of waste related information both in costs and volume for improved waste-reduction decisions for an improved waste-reduction strategy.
Key words: Wastewater, brewery process waste, material flow cost accounting (MFCA), waste-reduction decisions, negative product, positive product.

abstract  Utilizing data on a sample of large firms, we estimate a model of corporate reputation. We find reputation, derived from the assessments of managers and market analysts, to be determined by a firm's social performance, financial performance, market risk, the extent of long-term institutional ownership, and the nature of its business activities. Furthermore, the reputational effect of social performance is found to vary both across sectors, and within sectors across the various types of social performance. Specifically, our results demonstrate the need to achieve a ‘fit’ among the types of corporate social performance undertaken and the firm's stakeholder environment. For example, a strong record of environmental performance may enhance or damage reputation depending on whether the firm's activities ‘fit’ with environmental concerns in the eyes of stakeholders.

L’OIC (Organismo Italiano di Contabilità) ha posto in pubblica consultazione nell'ottobre 2012 la bozza del Principio contabile nazionale “Passaggio ai principi contabili nazionali”.

La bozza del principio contabile si propone di disciplinare le modalità di redazione del primo bilancio redatto secondo le disposizioni del codice civile e dei principi contabili nazionali da parte di una società che in precedenza redigeva il bilancio in conformità ad altre regole (principi contabili internazionali, normative di settore, ecc.). L'obiettivo è quello di fornire al lettore del bilancio la chiara e trasparente evidenza degli effetti prodotti dall’adozione dei principi contabili nazionali attraverso sia l’indicazione dell’impatto che tale cambiamento determina sui saldi patrimoniali di apertura del bilancio, sia il confronto con la situazione patrimoniale e quella economica dell’esercizio precedente, riportate nel bilancio comparativo.

Globalisation has boosted the demand for a more transparent accounting of corporate responsibilities encompassing social, economic and environmental dimensions. Proactive companies search for competitive advantage in markets by differentiating themselves from competitors. One way to do this is to engage in corporate social responsibility. This trend raises the issues of whether any connection between corporate social responsibility and competitiveness exists or even whether engagement in corporate social responsibility contributes to competitiveness. On the basis of an empirical study this article discusses the connections between corporate social responsibility and competitiveness of Finnish firms. The study by VTT and TKK Dipoli explored this connection from the following angles: first, how companies take into account corporate social responsibility requirements of stakeholders, second, how corporate social responsibility requirements guide business activities and decision making of companies and, third, whether and how socially responsible actions enhance firms’ competitiveness. The empirical study consists of case studies in companies identified to be leaders in corporate social responsibility and of a company survey with 150 respondents. As with several other studies, this study also provides support to the existence of a positive connection between corporate social responsibility and competitiveness. The chapter discusses the results of the study and identifies implications, recommendations and proposals for further research on corporate social responsibility and environmental management accounting.

Abstract Analysts often simultaneously provide stock recommendations and forecasts of future earnings of the firms they follow, with their stock recommendations depending heavily on their expectations of the firm's future earnings. However, they typically do not provide estimates of the other component of estimated stock value, the firm's cost of equity capital.

Enacting Environments is an ethnography of the midst of the encounter between corporations, sustainable development and climate change. At this intersection 'environmental management' and 'carbon accounting' are put into practice. Purportedly, these practices green capitalism. Drawing on fieldwork of day-to-day practices of corporate environmental accountants and managers, Ingmar Lippert reconstructs their work as achieving to produce a reality of environment that is simultaneously stable and flexible enough for a particular corporate project: to stage the company, and in consequence capitalism, as in control over its relations to an antecedent environment. Not confined to mere texts or meetings between shiny stakeholders co-governing the corporation – among them some of the world's biggest auditing firms, an environmental non-governmental organisation (NGO) and standards – control is found to be distributed across as well as limited to a myriad of practical work situations, involving spreadsheets and slide shows. Carbon accounting takes place in the midst of docile as well as dissident humans and nonhumans. As a result of this analysis, Enacting Environments establishes how carbon emission facts are produced and co-configure climate change realities. Ingmar Lippert argues: within capitalism, environment does not exist in the singular but in the plural; and these environments are not existing out there to be read off some anterior Nature but they are brought into social, economic and political existence in the practices of accounting for them. Providing a portfolio of methods to study techno-managerial engagement with carbon, Ingmar Lippert shows how much is overlooked in received theories of corporate environmental accounting, theories of the performativity of environmental economics and, ultimately, the epistemic and ontic effects of fact-making in the heart of neoliberal capitalism.

cite as: Ingmar Lippert (2013). Enacting Environments: An Ethnography of the Digitalisation and Naturalisation of Emissions. PhD Dissertation in Sociology, University of Augsburg, Augsburg.

This is a term paper requirement for the course ACT516M (Accountancy Enrichment Course) offered at De La Salle University for Term 3, SY 2006-2007. It has three papers on the Balanced Scorecard and one paper on Environmental Management Accounting. Please do not cite. Thank you.

Despite criticisms of their derivation and implementation, corporate codes of conduct (CoCs) continue to dominate debates on Corporate Social Responsibility and the informal regulation of worker exploitation and abuse by ‘sweatshops’ supplying Northern multinational corporations (MNCs). Through analytical interrogation of existing literature and empirical evidence from Vietnamese case studies, two propositions are made to clarify the poor performance of CoCs. It is argued, firstly, that the extent of the control of MNCs over their subcontracting suppliers is misconceived and overestimated because supply chains function more like networks than the hierarchies assumed by ‘principal-agent’ preconceptions. Conceptualizing such relationships instead as networks of conflicting political and economic imperatives amongst various sets of actors generates a second proposition derived from our case studies. The factory workers, their subcontractor employers, intermediary vendors and even the MNCs seeking CoC commitments, have convergent interests in violating key aspects of the codes and deceiving their auditors. The analysis evaluates the residual value of CoCs in light of these constraints and the options for improving labour regulation, with particular reference to the plight of disadvantaged women workers.