Environmental accounting: A management tool for enhancing corporate environmental and economic performance

Industries are becoming progressively more aware of the environmental and social liabilities pertaining to their operations and products, with associated financial effects. Uncertainties in measuring these financial effects can be addressed by using environmental evaluation and accounting techniques. Environmental accounting assists in expressing environmental and social liabilities as environmental costs. While environmental accounting systems now form part of industrial decision making in first world countries, there is a lack of similar systems in South Africa. The EEGECOST model was developed to promote environmental accounting in South Africa. Implementation of the model will provide South African industries with the framework for corporate evaluation of alternative investments, projects and processes and for estimating economic and environmental performance at present and especially in the future. The model identifies, records and allocates internal and external environmental costs to five identified cost types, categorised into several environmental media groups. It also assists in the capital budgeting process for alternative investments. Applicability of the model was tested in a case study conducted on the life cycle assessment of a functional unit of one million cigarettes. The model indicated that Type V costs (external costs, with Types I to IV being different internal cost types) contributed 12% of the total production costs of a functional unit of cigarettes. As Type V costs are subjective, it is recommended that further research be conducted to structure an objective framework to evaluate and determine cost factors involved in the development of Type V costs.