STRATEGIC ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF CURRENT CORPORATE PRACTICE AND STRATEGIC INTENT

Abstract

This paper investigates the current state of corporate Australia's environmental management accounting practices and environmental management accountants' perceptions of how environmental management accounting information should be accounted for and reported in the annual report of an environmentally sensitive corporation. The results indicate that many Australian companies have not yet developed a holistic approach to environmental costing, and that environmental management accountants believe that environmentally induced costs and expenses should be reported as notes to financial statements, rather than in the profit and loss statement in the corporate annual report. However, results are inconclusive as to whether certain environmentally induced expenditure should be capitalised and amortised separately in the balance sheet, while there is some support for environmentally induced end-of-pipe and integrated technologies being recognised separately as assets in the balance sheet.