Environmental Management Accounting

With an increase in the number of the companies that have adopted the ISO 14001 standard, the interest demonstrated in research studies regarding the assessment of the motives for and benefits from the ISO 14001 standard implementation has also been increasing. Nevertheless, in spite of the importance of the ISO 14001 standards, a discussion on their importance and the role of accounting in this process yet remains an open issue among researchers and practitioners. Starting from the above said, the main purpose of the research conducted in this paper is to identify the motives for and benefits from the implementation of the ISO 14001 standard and to examine the role of accounting in the implementation process. The empirical research in this paper was performed on the example of the 33 companies that have the obligation to submit their data on the sources of environmental pollution to the National Pollution Register. The data were collected through a poll of the management of the companies via a questionnaire, whereas the data analysis was performed by using various quantitative statistical methods and techniques, and primarily through the application of descriptive statistics and non-parametric tests. The results of the research indicate that the primary motives for the introduction of the ISO 14001 standards are an environmental responsibility, creating the image of a socially responsible company and the improvement of performances, whereas the benefits can be synthesized through the improvement of environmental performances, efficiency and profitability. Also, the results of the research study indicate that the managers of the companies partly recognize the role of accounting in the implementation of the ISO 14001 standard. The main conclusion of the research is that the management of the companies partly recognize the role of accounting in the ISO 14001 standards implementation. The main conclusion of the research is that the management of the companies in Serbia understand the importance of the implementation of the ISO 14001 standards, but not to a proper extent, as well as the role of accounting in that process.

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 Please do not cite.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.

Environment and sustainability are relatively new issues for business1 and even as recently as 20 years ago these terms were rarely if ever used in their present meaning. However, they are now recognized as pressing and urgent issues for humanity generally, perhaps the single most important issue of this generation.2 This can affect business in a number of different ways, in particular, through government policies and stakeholder pressures; especially, in recent years there has been strong public and political pressure on business generally to mitigate its impacts on climate change through carbon emissions. There is also a growing recognition that since at least some degree of significant environmental change is now unavoidable, it is prudent for businesses to try to anticipate this as far as possible and to adapt to its likely effects. More positively, some businesses have seen a chance to create new business opportunities and to improve economic performance through a proactive approach.

Stakeholders' pressure motivates the deployment of systems of environmental management control. Nevertheless, few insights are available regarding the impact of stakeholders' pressure on the extent to which eco-control systems are used. Findings from previous research on eco-control are said to be inconclusive, due to the lack of empirical evidence. In addition, the literature on hotels/tourism indicates a scarcity of studies investigating the factors associated with the use of these systems in the hotel sector. In this study, to help fill this gap, we contribute to the existing literature. We investigate, empirically, the associations between the impact of stakeholders' pressure and the use of eco-control systems, and whether the extent of using these systems is associated with hotel performance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Our findings conclude that the impact of stakeholders' pressure influences the extent of using eco-control systems in UAE hotels. However, contrary to expectations, the extent of using these systems is not significantly associated with hotel performance. Our findings and interpretations could reflect 'practice variation' in the adoption of eco-control systems in UAE hotels. It could be that UAE hotels do not capitalize on the implications the adoption of these systems could have on their performance. The academic and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

As a guest to a hotel you would have seen the notice ‘Save our planet,’ but may not have taken it seriously. However, it carries the message that the hotel solicits your (guest’s) support in preserving water, energy and environment. Unlike in any other industry, the support of the guest is indispensable in hotels to successfully implement initiatives aimed at preserving the environment. Preserving the environment in connection with the tourism industry is getting increasingly important due to various reasons such as growing green consciousness among tourists, mounting media coverage on environmental concerns and development of new concepts such as eco-tourism and responsible travel.

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.

In the recent past, board gender diversity grabs the attention of many researchers in the field of corporate finance. Prior literature suggests gender diversity in the boardroom significantly improves corporate governance and had a favourable impact on firm’s performance. However, gender diversity in the boardrooms and its linkage with firm’s performance is one of the debatable issues since the findings of empirical evidence are diverse across the countries. The main thrust of this study is to investigate the linkage between gender diversity in the boardroom and firm’s performance. A sample size of top 139 non-financial companies listed in NSE for a time period of five years, i.e., from 2011–12 to 2015–16 is used in this monograph. In order to investigate the linkage between gender diversity in the boardroom and the firm’s performance, the study employed Random-Effect GLS Regression Model as suggested by the Hausman Test. The findings of the study reveals that there lay a positive association between Proportion of Independent Female Directors on the Board and the Firm’s Performance (MVANW) after controlling the variables BOARD SIZE, FIRM SIZE, and Leverage (DER).

In this study, it is focused on how sustainable management accounting systems and activity based cost can consistently be executed. In order to explain sustainable management accounting systems, environmental management accounting are covered. Improvements in sustainable management accounting systems will be providing benefit to the internal decision makers and investors about managing these costs.

Bu çalışmada, Sürdürülebilir Yönetim Muhasebesi Sistemi ile Faaliyete Dayalı Maliyetlemenin uyumlu bir şekilde yürütülebileceği konusuna odaklanılmıştır. Sürdürülebilir Yönetim Muhasebesi Sisteminin gelişimini ifade etmek için çevresel yönetim muhasebesi kavramı ele alınmıştır. Sürdürülebilir Yönetim Muhasebesi Sistemindeki gelişmeler, bu maliyetlerin yönetimi için iç karar alıcılara ve yatırımcılara sosyal maliyet bilgisi sağlayacaktır.

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.

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.

This research investigates the relationship between proactive environmental management and financial performance from strategic management aspect. Despite popularity of the business case for environmental sustainability (BCES) among business leaders and scholars, however, the role of strategic initiatives in enabling a BCES remains unclear. Underpinned by dynamic capabilities theories, core strategic outcomes in terms of environmental strategic focus and environmental shared vision were postulated as sources of firms’ dynamic capabilities. These environmental capabilities enable firms to effectively exploit their environmental resources for building environmental performance which eventually contribute to their financial performance. The research model was validated via survey data collected in year 2017 from 124 Malaysian manufacturers certified with ISO 14001. Findings from data analysis via SEM-PLS structural model analysis indicated environmental strategic focus has a significant effect on environmental performance. Likewise, environmental performance illustrated a significant positive effect on financial performance. However, contrary to prediction, environmental shared vision has no effect on environmental performance. This study recognises some limitations and suggested directions for future research.

The main objective of this article is to illustrate the accounting methodology for eco-efficiency measurement, which allows for inclusion of the economically-orientated component in the processes of environmental reporting on tourist destination integral product, whilst examining the interrelation of eco-costs and values found in the classic LCC and particular tourist destination SBU (Strategic Business Unit). The process of tourist destination integral product eco-efficiency measurement calls for development of environmental accounting methods suitable for presentation of economically-orientated sustainability information. In the complex process of integral product eco-efficiency measurement, LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and LCC (Life Cycle Costing) take important roles. Interpretation and presentation of the data includes detailed cradle-to-grave environmental impact assessment of direct and indirect tourist activity and different products of tourist destination SBU's. Eco-costs represent the monetary component in the processes of environmental accounting and reporting on environmental impact of tourist destination integral product.

The present throughput "waste" economy, which requires more than 80 tons per person of nonrenewable
natural resources a year, is sacrificing Earth’s ecosystems and future options to
maintain the material wealth of Americans and Europeans. This cycle of massive consumption of
non-renewable resources and the accompanying by-products of enormous waste and pollution
are problematic for the long-term success and survival of most organizations and perhaps
humanity itself. This destructive practice will gradually yield to custom-tailored services and
products. Environmental accounting will help speed this transition, and will be made feasible
through the use of information rich technologies, required to manage a sustainable economy.
This paper presents a suggested model of implementation.

Dominant politics desires evidence-based environmental decision-making, employing facts. Grounded in an ethnography of the production of corporate carbon footprints, environmental facts are analysed as the effect of work and data processing. In the practical reality of work, environment exists in a hybrid and tactical dataspace. Implications for environmental politics question premises of both, ecological modernisation and state control of the environment.

Corporate carbon footprint data has become ubiquitous. This data is also highly promissory. But as this paper argues, such data fails both consumers and citizens. The governance of climate change seemingly requires a strong foundation of data on emission sources. Economists approach climate change as a market failure, where the optimisation of the atmosphere is to be evidence based and data driven. Citizens or consumers, state or private agents of control, all require deep access to information to judge emission realities. Whether we are interested in state-led or in neoliberal 'solutions' for either democratic participatory decision-making or for preventing market failure, companies' emissions need to be known. This paper draws on 20 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a Fortune 50 company's environmental accounting unit to show how carbon reporting interferes with information symmetry requirements, which further troubles possibilities for contesting data. A material-semiotic analysis of the data practices and infrastructures employed in the context of corporate emissions disclosure details the situated political economies of data labour along the data processing chain. The explicit consideration of how information asymmetries are socially and computationally shaped, how contexts are shifted and how data is systematically straightened out informs a reflexive engagement with Big Data. The paper argues that attempts to automatise environmental accounting's veracity management by means of computing metadata or to ensure that data quality meets requirements through third-party control are not satisfactory. The crossover of Big Data with corporate environmental governance does not promise to trouble the political economy that hitherto sustained unsustainability.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the development and implementation of Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) and environmental management at the level of a firm in the hotel sector in Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach – Case study method was used in the study. The primary data were collected through semi-structured interviews supported by observations of various facility centers (on-site assessment). Accounting records such as the Green Book, daily and monthly material and energy records, online resources and various other documents were content analyzed as sources of secondary data. Findings – The study observed that the hotel had reinvigorated some of its environmental management and EMA practices in an urgent, cost-saving bid when faced with a financial crisis. Having realized their cost-saving potential and strategic benefits, the management developed these selective practices over time into comprehensive practices that are integrated into the daily ma...

There is an increasing awareness among all the stakeholders about the importance of the Corporate Social Responsibility of the firms, especially in green concepts. The Environmental Accounting deals with the assessment and disclosure of environment related information. The environment related information helps to take both internal and external decision making of the organization. Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) deals with the internal decision making related to the environmental performance of the organization. This paper reviews the internal decision making tools in taking business decision regarding environmental consideration.

In today’s world, advanced nations are enthusiastically performing environmental activities to capture the definitive attainment of financial advantage. Emerging and developing nations are also capturing them gradually. The adoption of environmental management systems and the application of environmental accounting practices are the key tools to meet the financial advantage through increasing the cost advantage. This paper examines the impact of the adoption of environmental management systems and the application of environmental accounting practices with an environmental cost advantage. We gather 268 responses from the respondents by the convenient sampling method and employ the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique to find the effect. We use Smart PLS version 3.3. to conduct the analysis. We find robust evidence that the more the adoption of environment systems (e.g., Pollution-prevention, the innovation of technologies, early adoption of environmental issues), the higher ...

There is an increasing awareness among all the stakeholders about the importance of the Corporate Social Responsibility of the firms, especially in green concepts. The Environmental Accounting deals with the assessment and disclosure of environment related information. The environment related information helps to take both internal and external decision making of the organization. Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) deals with the internal decision making related to the environmental performance of the organization. This paper reviews the internal decision making tools in taking business decision regarding environmental consideration.

The time has arrived to redefine, reorient business perception about business profits in the present global warming, global booming of pollution, climate change. It is the time to redefine financial accounting, recording costs and revenue, profit, divisible profit and rename it as environmental adjusted profits, environmental adjusted divisible profits, environmental adjusted EPS. It is the time to harmonise traditional financial bottom-line with environmental bottom-line new form of accountability but also new form of accounting. This research is conceptual in nature and based on secondary data. The limitations of the study is based on 41 companies GRI reporting on sustainability. The users of this research article-Academician, professional, training organisations can make use of this resources to bring change to implement environmental accounting with new perspective of conservative principle of environmental financial reporting. The researcher has studied the relationships between environment accounting variables and profitability variables. It is concluded that there is a positive correlation between the Net profit and independent environmental accounting energy variables in south India based organizations.

Previously EMA was suggested as the interface between environmental management strategies and management reporting in an organization. In other words, EMA is used as a decision support tool when adopting various environmental strategies. EMA, if carefully interwoven with the environmental strategy of an organization, will bring many benefits to an organization. A carefully designed EMA system is paramount in this regard. Many external and internal factors such as nature of product/service and operations, regulations, organizational structure, history and ownership, environmental conditions and availability of resources, however, will determine the nature of the EMA system. Yet, a common broad framework for successful adoption/implementation of EMA can be presented as follows