Environmental Accounting

Environmental accounting is a broad term which covers both national- and corporate-level environmental performance activities and associated stakeholder interactions. It includes the processing of both financial and nonfinancial information regarding environmental and ecological impacts. At a corporate level, environmental accounting can be defined as a set of organizational activities that deal with the measurement and analysis of the environmental performance of corporations and the reporting of such results to concerned groups, both within and outside the corporation. At a national or regional level, environmental accounting is that branch of accounting dealing with activities, methods, recordings, analysis, and reporting of environmental and ecological impacts of defined economic systems.  The exact scope of environmental accounting remains contested, however, and definitions and applications vary; environmental accounts usually include a mix of financial and nonfinancial terms and can be prepared for internal and/or external use. Nevertheless, two major subsets of environmental accounting can be identified: environmental management accounting (EMA) and environmental reporting.