Fostering the Adoption of Environmental Management with the Help of Accounting: An Integrated Framework

Abstract

Social accountability of organizations has been intensely discussed in the recent past. As a means of being accountable organizations pursue many environmental management strategies in addition to other strategies. In order to analyze these strategies various models that trace the development of corporate environmental management have been suggested. However, without supportive greener accounting tools and techniques environmental strategies will not succeed. But there is limited guidance and analysis of how the vital accounting aspects can be integrated with environmental development to sustain corporate environmental strategies. This chapter aims to provide an integrated framework to facilitate the adoption of environmental management with the help of accounting in pursuit of corporate social accountability. The framework suggests that the development of environmental management in an organization is evolutionary from compliance to leading edge stages. Initially driven by compliance, these strategies will later generate competitive advantage for an organization while ensuring social accountability. To reach the leading edge stage, environmental strategies should encompass all the significant environmental domains while engaging stakeholders on a regular basis. In this process accounting for environmental management (Environmental Management Accounting) with the provision of requisite information will act as the common thread that connects and sustains these practices. By providing useful practical and theoretical contributions the integrated framework adds a new accounting dimension to the existing discussions on how corporate environmental management strategies can be developed over time.