Environmental accounting: good for business, bad for the planet?
by Gary O'Donovan
Interdisciplinary Environmental Review (IER), Vol. 3, No. 2, 2001

Abstract: The idea that sustainable development is a desirable goal for business is generally accepted. Much of the attention given to environmental accounting and reporting during the last 10 years has, at its core, the idea of sustainable development. One way this is reflected is in the increasing use of the term, 'the triple bottom line', to incorporate reporting on social and environmental, as well as traditional financial performance. An increasing number of multinational companies have embraced and publicly support the concept of the triple bottom line. In this paper, it is the environmental part of the triple bottom line that is investigated in the context of questioning whether the arguments supporting the integration of environmental accounting with conventional accounting is an aid or burden to sustainable development. The overall tenor of this paper is strategic rather than tactical and analytical rather than empirical. It is argued that, at this stage of its development, environmental accounting reflects a disproportional interest in the financial bottom line and that the idea of reporting on the triple bottom line is presently more symbolic than substantive. In this sense, while the adoption of environmental accounting, in the image of conventional accounting, might be desirable in the short term for business, it will come at a cost to the planet in the long term.

Online publication date: Mon, 13-May-2013

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