Environmental Management Accounting

Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is increasingly recognised as a distinguished tool of environmental management. It helps to integrate a company's environmental and business interests, whereby enhancing corporate eco-efficiency in terms of reducing environmental costs or making one's product more competitive. This book gives a comprehensive coverage of the state of the art. It presents a number of EMA frameworks that companies can take as a basis for implementing their own specific EMA structures. Besides discussing environmental accounting issues within conventional management accounting, it gives a detailed picture of materials flow (cost) accounting as an alternative way of looking at the ecology-economy relationships at the corporate level. A fascinating case study shows how a large company (Siemens) applies materials flow accounting and what benefits it entails.

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’.

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.

Sustainable development will not happen without substantial contributions from and leading roles of companies and business organizations. This requires the provision of adequate information on corporate social and ecological impacts and performance. For the last decade, progress has been made in developing and adapting accounting mechanisms to these needs but significant work is still needed to tackle the problems associated with conventional accounting. Until recently, research on environmental management accounting (EMA) has concentrated on developed countries and on cost–benefit analysis of implementing individual EMA tools. Using a comparative case study design, this book seeks to redress the balance and improve the understanding of EMA in management decision-making in emerging countries, focussing specifically on South-East Asian companies. Drawing on 12 case studies, taken from a variety of industries, Environmental Management Accounting: Case Studies of South-East Asian Companies explores the relationship between decision situations and the motivation for, and barriers to, the application of clusters of EMA tools as well as the implementation process itself. This book will be useful to scholars interested in the environmental and sustainability management accounting research field and those considering specific approaches to EMA within emerging economies.

Essay from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Investment and Finance, grade: 1,3 (A), University of Glamorgan, language: English, abstract: The importance placed on environmental issues has increased during the last two decades. Businesses have become increasingly aware of the environmental implications on their operations, products, and services. Environmental risks may have serious consequences for the prospects of a company, with particular financial consequences. Businesses experience increased pressure from various stakeholders to report on environmental behaviour. Smith and Lambell (1997) stated that the topic of environmental accounting is not new, because many companies already produce environmental statements within their annual reports. Traditional accounting techniques such as financial and management accounting are used to report on the environmental implications of a business. Smith and Lambell (1997) also argued that companies should cease considering the environment as a given factor and take it into their accounts. This can be done by identifying the environmental costs of a product, service, or process. The environmental costs increased as a consequence of this, amongst other reasons. The existing conventional accounting systems are not able to deal with these environmental costs because they tend to attribute them to general overhead accounts. As result managers are often unaware of them and have no incentive to reduce them (UNDSD, 2003). Environmental Management Accounting, a variant of environmental accounting, provides managers with knowledge about these environmental costs by extending conventional methods of accounting to capture them (Smith and Lambell, 1997). Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) generates, analyses and uses financial and non-financial information to support internal management. It is a complementary management accounting approach to the financial accounting approach, according to Bennett and James (1998a). EMA helps to identify and allocate environment-related costs and aims to develop appropriate mechanisms for this (Frost and Wilmhurst, 2000). Key application fields for EMA are: assessment of annual environmental costs/expenditures, product pricing, budgeting, investment appraisal, calculating costs and savings of environmental projects, or setting quantified performance targets, to name only a few (Jasch, 2003). Frost and Wilmhurst (2000) stated that EMA practices have resulted in cost savings and competitive advantage.

This is the second book of selected papers on environmental management accounting (EMA) which has been developed for Kluwer by the Environmental Management Accounting Network - Europe (EMAN-Eu), drawn primarily from papers presented at EMAN-Eu, to bring together several examples of leading thinking and practice internationally in this rapidly developing area. The authors include academics, practitioners from industry, and government policy-makers, and the subjects covered range from individual company experiences to the role of government in promoting EMA in industry. The papers included in the book provide several examples of how EMA can be applied in practice both in large corporations and in small and medium-sized enterprises, and of reports on the extent of the implementation of EMA and the conditions which encourage this. The book is intended for all those interested in EMA as either researchers or practitioners. It will also be of interest both to those interested in how well-established management accounting methods can be adapted and extended in order to meet new demands on companies, and also to environmental managers interested in learning how accounting techniques can be of value in achieving environmental management objectives.

The Expert Working Group on Improving Government's Role in the Promotion of Environmental Management Accounting (EMA), was formed when it was realised that although a number of governments were interested in promoting EMA, there was little communication between the agencies involved. This, the first publication of the Working Group, presents the terminology and techniques used by its members. It aims to establish a common understanding of the basic concepts of EMA and provide a set of principles and procedures to guide those interested in its application.

This book brings together examples of leading thinking and international practice in the rapidly developing area of environmental management accounting .(EMA) The authors include academics and practitioners from industry and the subjects covered range from individual company experiences with implementing EMA to national experiences regarding the adoption and diffusion of EMA practices.