A report on the origins of Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA) research activities

This introduction provides an overview of the historical development of Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA). From its beginnings within an environmental management project at the textile company Kunert in Southern Germany in the late 1980s and early 1990s to ISO 14051: 2011 passed more than twenty years. This article analyses the development and provides several practical examples. Publicly funded projects had proven that MFCA works for companies and could be applied successfully in order to reduce environmental impact and reduce corporate costs simultaneously. This overview gives a detailed description of a research method, developing into an international standard. To understand the MFCA approach its history and roots have to be considered.