Green accounting - problems to accounting and accountants

Abstract

Concern for public image, rising insurance premiums, increasing community awareness of the environment, and the implementation of stiff penalties and fines for noncompliance with environmental legislation, have made green concern an integral component of the every day operation of many corporations. Whereas accountants used to think that they should deal only with bookkeeping and producing balance sheets, the concensus today is that accounting is a dicipline and a profession with a strong political, social, economic, and environmental component. Further more, a corporation is perceived as having a complex interaction with its environment, drawing from and contributing to in many aspects. Environment contributes in the form of water, air and natural facilities for a business to operate, and in return provides goods, services and employment to the environment - society. These natural resources should be recognised as capital for them to borrow and not to consume. Thus, this paper discusses accounting problems relating to accounting for the environment, and focuses on how accountants in the 1990's can help solve these problems.