Developing a model for reviewing the implementation and utilisation of Environmental Accounting

• Main Author: Alheit, Wilhelm
• Other Authors: Fuggle, Richard Francis
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: University of Cape Town 2014
• Subjects: Environmental and Geographical Science
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7679

Bibliography: leaves 115-117. === Environmental regulation and environmental pressures from various interest groups have been steadily increasing in recent years. Poor environmental performance by business may be costly and may lead, for example, to increased environmental taxes, financial liabilities resulting from lawsuits related to environmental incidents, or damage to public image as a results of pressure group campaigns. The environment has become a significant cost factor for business. Lack of environmental cost information However, many companies do not know how what the magnitude and extent of their environmental costs are. Financial accounting and reporting systems are not designed to extract environmental cost information from general financial information. Financial accounting systems do not reveal how high environmental costs and liabilities are, nor what the sources of environmental costs are. Environmental management systems on the other hand, produce environmental data, but this data is not monetized and therefore does not reveal much about environmental costs either. Why financial accounting systems fail to reveal accurate environmental cost information Accounting systems typically pool environmental costs into overhead accounts. The result is that both the sources of the environmental costs and its nature as environmental costs are obscured by the financial reporting system. This becomes a problem when the environmental costs assigned to overhead accounts are significantly high, or when different products, materials or processes contribute to environmental costs unequally. How environmental accounting generates environmental cost information Environmental accounting generates environmental cost information by identifying the significant environmental costs of a company. This is done by identifying the processes, materials, wastes or products of a company that create significant environmental impacts. Environmental accounting then investigates the financial reporting system and identifies all the costs that are associated with these processes, materials, wastes or products and that may potentially be hidden in overhead accounts. Once the environmental costs have been identified in overhead accounts, the costs can be allocated to its sources. Thus environmental cost information is generated that reveals the true extent and the sources of environmental costs. This information can then be used to inform a company's business decisions. The process described above illustrates how environmental accounting combines the disciplines of environmental and financial management. Environmental data from the environmental management discipline is used to focus attention on the processes, materials, wastes or products of a company that create significant environmental impacts. The skills of the financial management discipline is then used to link the processes, materials, wastes or products with significant environmental impacts to the costs created by them. These costs would typically have been obscured or hidden in overhead accounts. Through providing more accurate environmental cost information, environmental accounting can reveal opportunities to management for the reduction of environmental costs and the improvement of environmental performance. The purpose of this thesis is to develop an Environmental Accounting Review Model that presents guidelines against which the adequacy of an environmental accounting project can be assessed. What follows is a brief description of the main elements of the Environmental Accounting Review Model, which outlines the basic elements of the process of environmental accounting.