Environmental Accounting For The Sustainable Corporation

Corporations must decide how much to invest in the natural capital (e.g. air, water, land, and forests) that they depend upon for their economic survival. How do they project the costs of essential investments under conditions of scientific and legislative uncertainty? An innovative roadmap is laid out with the help of a case study based on the actual experiences of a forestry company that made such an attempt. Everyone interested in developing a long-range environmental strategy will find this book instructive: senior corporate management, accountants, internal auditors, academics, students, and environmentalists. Based on the author's research for the United Nations, a new methodology is advanced to compute fuller costs. In addition to practical guidance on the theory and practice of calculating fuller costs, the author illustrates alternatives to traditional capital budgeting models. A whole range of concepts and applications are offered on natural capital; intergenerational equity; waste minimization; asset depletion rates; application of risk-management principles to costing natural capital; off-balance sheet natural assets; modern definition of profit for natural and business capital. Pioneering reporting methods for returns on investment and product costs are recommended in the concluding chapters.

This is the fourth in a series publishing the best contributions on environmental management accounting (EMA) from around the world. This volume brings together international examples of leading thinking and practice in this rapidly developing area. This is the most comprehensive volume to date covering theory, practice and case studies on sustainability accounting and reporting. It covers tools, frameworks, concepts as well as case studies and empirical analysis.

This book is designed to meet the urgent need for a comprehensive and definitive introduction and teaching text on corporate environmental management. It aims to become the standard textbook for courses examining how business can take the environment into account while also providing an accessible and thorough overview of this increasingly multidisciplinary subject for practitioners. Written by the internationally acknowledged experts Stefan Schaltegger and Roger Burritt (authors of the highly influential Contemporary Environmental Accounting) along with Holger Petersen, the book invites the reader to join in an exploration of the ways in which companies can engage in environmental management and why such engagement can be profitable for business. The reader is invited to: examine whether the contents reflect their own experience, takes their experience further, or opposes their own views; note which of the ideas presented are especially important, add to those ideas, or encourage a reaction (positive or negative); answer questions creatively (based on their own perspective of the issues); encourage themselves to be inspired by questions, which can be investigated further through other written sources of information, such as books you will be guided to through the bibliography, the Internet or the general media; and think about and plan the ways in which the knowledge provided can be implemented in your own situation. The book is organised into four main sections. First, the fundamental ideas and linkages behind business management, the environment and sustainable development are briefly but clearly sketched. The second part of the book outlines the criteria against which environmentally oriented business management can be assessed and the fields of action in which success can be achieved. The third part presents a discussion and examples of strategies for environmental management, which are linked, in the fourth part, to the essential tools of environmental management, especially green marketing, environmental accounting and eco-control. The book is full of case studies and examples related to the main contents of each chapter and each chapter provides a number of questions for the student or reader to address. An Introduction to Corporate Environmental Management is both a textbook and a sourcebook. The reader can either work through the material in a structured way or dip into the content and follow up on specific areas of interest. The materials are designed to be used for understanding and reference, rather than to be learned by heart. The primary aim is for the reader to obtain a practical understanding of the relationship between management and environmental issues which can be applied in day-to-day situations-whether as part of a student's wider view of management or within the practitioner's real-world situation. It will be essential reading for many years to come.

Sustainability requires companies to develop in an economically, environmentally and socially sustainable manner. Corporate sustainable development in turn requires movement towards cleaner production. In order to recognize the potential from cleaner production – reduced costs and fewer environmental impacts through the reduced use of materials – environmental management accounting (EMA) is a necessary information management tool. Environmental Management Accounting for Cleaner Production reveals a set of tools for companies to collect, evaluate and interpret the information they need to estimate their potential to use cleaner production to realize cost savings and to make the best decisions about the available cleaner production options. EMA is therefore the key for driving environmental progress, cost savings, increased competitiveness and corporate sustainability through the means of cleaner production.

If businesses and other organizations are to meet the many and complex challenges of sustainable development, then they all, both public and private, need to embed sustainability considerations into their decision-making and reporting. However, the translation of this aspiration into effective action is often inhibited by the lack of systems and procedures that take sustainability into account. Accounting for Sustainability: Practical Insights will help organizations to address these issues. The book sets out a number of tools and approaches that have been developed and applied by leading organizations to: - embed sustainability into decision-making, extending beyond an organization's boundaries to take into account suppliers, customers and other stakeholders; - measure and link sustainability and financial performance; - integrate sustainability into 'mainstream' reporting, both to management and external stakeholders. In-depth cases studies from Aviva, BT, the Environment Agency, EDF Energy, HSBC, Novo Nordisk, Sainsbury's and West Sussex County Council show in detail how accounting for sustainability works in practice in a wide range of organizational contexts. Published with The Prince's Charities: Accounting for Sustainability

This book provides a broad overview of how sustainability reporting has grown, how it is used now and where it is heading. Daily, we read and hear in various media about concepts such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability reporting, sustainability accounting, environmental reports, corporate citizenship or environmental management systems. Accounting for Sustainability decodes this terminology by providing an accessible introduction to the topic that explores sustainability reporting from an internal and external perspective. It begins with an overview of how sustainability reporting has emerged and why it is important, before moving on to cover definitions of key terms and specific theories and frameworks. Subsequent chapters explore the role of financial management, sustainability standards, accounting communication and capital markets. With learning outcomes and study questions embedded in each chapter, this book will be of great interest to students of sustainability reporting and accounting, as well as practitioners taking related professional accreditations.

This volume’s focus on the environmental accounting of supply chain processes is of particular relevance because these processes supply data about the environmental impact of relationships between business organisations, an area where the boundary separating internal and external accounting is ill-defined. Here, contributors advocate what they term ‘accounting for cooperation’ as a more environmentally positive complement to the paradigmatic practice of ‘accounting for competition’.

This exciting book is one of the first textbooks in the fast growing area of sustainability accounting. Contributed to, and edited by an impressive array of internationally renowned authorities, it focuses on the use of sustainability accounting both as an external accountability mechanism (external reporting) and as a tool for helping managers assess and manage the social and environmental impacts of their operations (management accounting). Using real-life examples and case studies to emphasize the links between the conceptual basis and issues in practice, this outstanding book addresses the growing interest among both practitioners and academics in social, environmental and ethical accountability, as interpreted through the lens of sustainable development.