Environmental life cycle costs in the Australian food packaging supply chain

Karli James

doi:10.1080/0969160x.2003.9651688

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that external and internal pressures are being placed upon companies to acknowledge, characterise and analyse environmental issues, impacts and costs. It has been argued that companies will increasingly be faced with responsibilities extending outside the factory gate to point of sale and beyond. Companies will need to adopt a life cycle perspective into the decision making framework, to support managements' decisions regarding the environmental impacts and costs of activities and products. The aim of this thesis is to explore the environmental impacts and environmental costs recognition and management within companies in the Australian food packaging supply chain. A grounded theory approach is used to develop propositions from the findings that can be tested in further research. A qualitative case study approach is undertaken using face-to-face interviews with Environmental Managers of twenty-seven companies that operate within the Australian food packaging supply chain.

Highlights

5.2 Company characteristics5.3 Environmental mission, values and policy statements5.4 Current environmental issues5.5 Environmental reporting5.5.1 Environmental section included in company annual report 1445.5.2 Stand-alone environmental report5.6 Environmental management system (EMS)5.7 Drivers behind environmental reporting and EMS5.8 Voluntary environmental initiatives5.9 Future environmental information
The findings indicated that 91 companies (64%) either planned to implement or had already implemented an activity based costing (ABC) system during the early-mid 1990s
Five activity-based environmental task classifications were proposed, hi a case study example the results indicated that the production process had the lowest percentage of environmental costs, whereas production support, maintenance and Chapter 3 - Environmental Accounting, Costing Approaches and Life Cycle Assessment Other support functions showed higher percentages

Summary

Introduction

5.2 Company characteristics5.3 Environmental mission, values and policy statements5.4 Current environmental issues5.5 Environmental reporting5.5.1 Environmental section included in company annual report 1445.5.2 Stand-alone environmental report5.6 Environmental management system (EMS)5.7 Drivers behind environmental reporting and EMS5.8 Voluntary environmental initiatives5.9 Future environmental information. Packaging Covenant (NPC) and Greenhouse Challenge Program (GHCP) used as examples, and; v) discussion of the key environmental issues in the Australian food and grocery industry. Life cycle costing (LCC) (Section 3.6), value chain analysis (VCA) (Section 3.7) and activity based costing (ABC) (Section 3.8) are three cost accounting approaches that may have merit in determining and managing environmental costs They differ in methodology, system boundary and outputs and produce information on different aspects of costing relevant to the organisation. The chapter begins with an overview of environmental challenges in the packaging supply chain industry with examples of challenges for the Australian food and packaging supply chain and the findings for each research question are presented. United Nations (1994), Environmental Disclosures: International Survey of Corporate Reporting Practices, Report of the UNCTAD Secretariat, (E/C.10/AC3/1994/4), United Nations, New York, NY, 12 January

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