Corporate governance and accountability for environmental concerns

Abstract

Environmental costs and obligations are significantly growing and will continue to grow as our society becomes more environmentally conscious and environmental regulations increase. Examines the significance of environmental outlays, discusses existing governmental regulations and accounting standards pertaining to environmental concerns, investigates the current accounting practices of environmental costs and obligations, and makes recommendations for proper measurement, recognition and disclosure of environmental outlays. Examines annual reports of the studied companies and reveals inconsistencies in accounting practices for measurement, recognition and disclosures of environmental outlays. Suggests these inconsistencies are primarily due to lack of sufficient and uniform authoritative accounting standards and ever‐changing public policy and regulatory standards. Indicates that society will benefit from uniform and specified accounting standards for environmental reporting in protecting organizations′ financial health.