Environmental and Material Flow Cost Accounting


Book Description

Recognizing the increasing importance of environmental issues, energy prices, material availability and efficiency and the difficulty of adequately managing these issues in traditional accounting systems, several companies all over the world have started implementing “Environmental and Material Flow Cost Accounting” (EMA and MFCA). “Environmental and Material Flow Costs Accounting” explains and updates the approach developed for the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DSD/UNDESA) and the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and in addition includes experiences of several case studies and recent developments regarding EMA and MFCA in national statistics and ISO standardization.




Handbook of Sustainable Engineering


Book Description

"The efficient utilization of energy, sustainable use of natural resources, and large-scale adoption of sustainable technologies is the key to a sustainable future. The Handbook of Sustainable Engineering provides tools that will help us achieve these goals". Nobel Prize Winner Dr. R.K. Pachauri, Chairman, UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change As global society confronts the challenges of diminishing resources, ecological degradation, and climate change, engineers play a crucial role designing and building technologies and products that fulfil our needs for utility and sustainability. The Handbook of Sustainable Engineering equips readers with the context and the best practices derived from both academic research and practical examples of successful implementations of sustainable technical solutions. The handbook’s content revolves around the two themes, new ways of thinking and new business models, including sustainable production, products, service systems and consumption while addressing key assets based on new materials, optimized resource management, and new energy sources. Contributions reflect a focus on state-of-the art insights into employing smart materials, recycling e-waste, water utilization, solar cells, product lifecycles, transportation and reverse manufacturing. Supportive of this, underlying issues such as engineering education, consumer behaviour and the regulatory climate complete the handbook’s comprehensive treatment of the problems and most promising solutions.




Environmental Management Accounting: Informational and Institutional Developments


Book Description

Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is increasingly recognised as a distinguished tool of environmental management. It helps to integrate a company's environmental and business interests, whereby enhancing corporate eco-efficiency in terms of reducing environmental costs or making one's product more competitive. This book gives a comprehensive coverage of the state of the art. It presents a number of EMA frameworks that companies can take as a basis for implementing their own specific EMA structures. Besides discussing environmental accounting issues within conventional management accounting, it gives a detailed picture of materials flow (cost) accounting as an alternative way of looking at the ecology-economy relationships at the corporate level. A fascinating case study shows how a large company (Siemens) applies materials flow accounting and what benefits it entails.




Handbook of Research on Climate Change and the Sustainable Financial Sector


Book Description

Climate change is a major problem, generating both risks and opportunities that will have a direct impact on the economy and the financial sector. In recent years, climate change has threatened both the survival of the financial system and economic development. The growing occurrence of extreme climate events combined with the imprudent nature of economic growth can cause unsustainable levels of harm to the financial sectors. On the other hand, it presents a range of new business challenges. In contrast to the most evident physical risks, companies are vulnerable to transformational risks that arise from the reaction of society to climate change, such as technological change, regulation and markets that can boost the cost of doing business, threats to the profitability of existing goods, or effects on the value of the asset. Climate change also offers new business opportunities, and it has made research in the context of a sustainable financial sector indispensable. The Handbook of Research on Climate Change and the Sustainable Financial Sector focuses on the impacts of climate change on various sectors of the world economy. This book covers how businesses can improve their sustainability, the impact of climate change on the financial sector, and specifically, the impacts on financial services, supply chains, and the socio-economic status of the world. Beyond focusing on the impacts to the financial industry itself, this book assesses how climate change in the financial sector affects the well-being of society in areas such as unemployment, economic recessions, decreases in consumer purchases, and more. This book is essential for stockbrokers, business managers, directors, fund managers, financial analysts, consultants and actuaries, institutional investors, policymakers, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in a comprehensive view of the impact of climate change on the financial sector.




Material Flow Management


Book Description

Material flow management offers enterprises a high potential for realizing new economic competitive advantages. The eco-efficient optimization of material flow cutS costs while simultaneously achieving long-term ecological sustainability. This book summarises the fundamental concepts and tools of material flow management, and presents contemporary methods and findings. Case studies illustrate the results from recent research projects conducted in cooperation with industrial companies.




Environmental Management Accounting - Purpose and Progress


Book Description

This is the second book of selected papers on environmental management accounting (EMA) which has been developed for Kluwer by the Environmental Management Accounting Network - Europe (EMAN-Eu), drawn primarily from papers presented at EMAN-Eu, to bring together several examples of leading thinking and practice internationally in this rapidly developing area. The authors include academics, practitioners from industry, and government policy-makers, and the subjects covered range from individual company experiences to the role of government in promoting EMA in industry. The papers included in the book provide several examples of how EMA can be applied in practice both in large corporations and in small and medium-sized enterprises, and of reports on the extent of the implementation of EMA and the conditions which encourage this. The book is intended for all those interested in EMA as either researchers or practitioners. It will also be of interest both to those interested in how well-established management accounting methods can be adapted and extended in order to meet new demands on companies, and also to environmental managers interested in learning how accounting techniques can be of value in achieving environmental management objectives.




Environmental Management Accounting


Book Description

Sustainable development will not happen without substantial contributions from and leading roles of companies and business organizations. This requires the provision of adequate information on corporate social and ecological impacts and performance. For the last decade, progress has been made in developing and adapting accounting mechanisms to these needs but significant work is still needed to tackle the problems associated with conventional accounting. Until recently, research on environmental management accounting (EMA) has concentrated on developed countries and on cost–benefit analysis of implementing individual EMA tools. Using a comparative case study design, this book seeks to redress the balance and improve the understanding of EMA in management decision-making in emerging countries, focussing specifically on South-East Asian companies. Drawing on 12 case studies, taken from a variety of industries, Environmental Management Accounting: Case Studies of South-East Asian Companies explores the relationship between decision situations and the motivation for, and barriers to, the application of clusters of EMA tools as well as the implementation process itself. This book will be useful to scholars interested in the environmental and sustainability management accounting research field and those considering specific approaches to EMA within emerging economies.




Environmental Management Accounting Procedures and Principles


Book Description

The Expert Working Group on Improving Government's Role in the Promotion of Environmental Management Accounting (EMA), was formed when it was realised that although a number of governments were interested in promoting EMA, there was little communication between the agencies involved. This, the first publication of the Working Group, presents the terminology and techniques used by its members. It aims to establish a common understanding of the basic concepts of EMA and provide a set of principles and procedures to guide those interested in its application.




Environmental Accounting in Theory and Practice


Book Description

Policy failures in environment and development have been blamed on frag mented and eclectic policies and strategies. The 1992 United Nations Con ference on Environment and Development, the 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janeiro, called therefore for an integrated approach in planning and policy making to achieve long-term sustainable growth and development. The Con ference also recognized in its action plan, the Agenda 21, that integrated poli cies need to be supported by integrated information, notably requiring the implementation of integrated environmental and economic accounting by its member States. During the preparations for the Rio Summit, scientists and practitioners of national accounting met in a Special Conference on Environmental Account ing, organized by the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth (IARIW) in Baden, Austria. Their aim was to explore the need for and methodologies of adjusting national accounts for environmental reasons. National accountants had faced mounting criticism that conventional accounting neglected new scarcities in natural capital, as well as the social cost of environmental degradation. The result of their deliberations was a draft manual, later issued by the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) as a handbook of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting.




Proceedings of the 6th European Lean Educator Conference


Book Description

This book gathers selected peer-reviewed papers presented at the 6th European Lean Educator Conference (ELEC), held in Milan, Italy, on November 11-13, 2019. The conference topics include the following: lean trainings in university and industry collaborations; lean product and process development; lean and people empowerment; emerging contexts for lean applications; measuring lean performance; lean, green and circular; continuous improvement initiatives; lean thinking in practice; organizational culture in lean journeys; and innovative training approaches to teaching lean management. The contributions explore the latest academic and industrial findings on and advances in lean education, and identify innovative methods that allow lean thinking benefits to be achieved in practice. As such, the book presents the outcomes of a fruitful exchange between academia and industry designed to help train the next generation of lean educators.