Environmental Accounting: An Introduction

In recent years there has been a trend in many public corporations to provide more information on environmental matters both within the management accounting system and in annual reports. This is in response to increased concern by the stakeholders and public awareness of environmental issues. These factors have put pressure on listed corporations to measure environmental costs and expenses and to develop and enhance environmental disclosure to different stakeholder groups. The process of environmental accounting seeks to embed the responsibilities of the senior management towards shareholders as well as other stakeholders in the company’s accounting and reporting procedures. Environmental accounting reveals the environmental conservation activities undertaken by a company or organization in a given period. The main focus of the book is on the role of environmental accounting as a management tool. It also analyses: ·How it will be applied in the corporate annual reports as a tool to measure the corporate performance; ·How the accounting profession is playing a vital role in tracing and accounting the role of environment in the corporate books and also how accounting standards are giving importance to the disclosure practices; ·How the users of financial statements are taking this information in analyzing as well as decision-making; and ·How the environmental accounting is practised in different industries and different countries.