Environmental and related issues are of increasing interest to managers of corporations for several reasons. First, demand for environmental accounting information from various interest groups is on the rise. The environmental impacts of corporate activities are increasingly being monitored by government agencies, local communities, non-governmental organizations, the finance sector and others (Schaltegger and Burritt, 2000). Second, the need to manage environmental liabilities has progressed in parallel with an increase in
the amount of environmental legislation and the associated need for compliance. Third, the cost of technology associated with the generation of environmental information has been declining. Finally, growing recognition of the importance of links between business and its environmental impacts is generating a range of government incentives to encourage clean and green corporate activities that act in the interests of society at large.
Today a large number of companies in developed countries collect, use and distribute information related to the natural environment. This reflects a fundamental change compared with a decade ago (for example, Gray et al., 1996, p. 81; Schaltegger and Burritt, 2000, p. 30). Pressures from external stakeholders concerned about the impact of corporate activities on the environment have increased, the costs of environmental impacts have risen substantially (for example, through penalties established in new environmental legislation), and investments in environmentally benign processes and products have been encouraged by tighter environmental regulation and stakeholder pressure.
Such pressures together with the incorporation of environmental information in
accounting systems have led to the emergence of a range of perceptions about the concept and practices of environmental accounting (for example, Burritt, 1997; EPA, 1995; Gray et al., 1993, 1996; Parker, 1999; Schaltegger, 1996; Schaltegger and Burritt, 2000; Schaltegger and Stinson, 1994; Schaltegger et al., 1996). An articulated framework for environmental accounting is thus essential for a pragmatic understanding of the linkages between these different approaches.