Selected Management Accounting Tools Supporting Companies’ Green Decisions in the Context of Environmental Management Accounting

Abstract

In the context of the growing expectations and environmental challenges faced by companies, resulting in social responsibility, sustainable development, market competition, and legislation—they take action to rationally manage natural resources and reduce their negative impact on the natural environment. This requires that all stakeholders be provided with relevant environmental information, including information from the accounting system. This information should be processed in such a way as to enable making reasonable and risk-limited decisions. Conscientious management staff know that environmental conditions and activities are closely linked to other aspects of the company’s business and can contribute to both its success and failure. For this reason (1) there is growing interest in improving management accounting, in particular environmentally focused accounting, and (2) there is still a need for both methods and tools to help companies assess and make decisions about their environmental activities. The purpose of the chapter, therefore, is to define the needs of companies in terms of environmental information and to indicate the possibility of using management accounting tools as a source of management information within the EMA. The author uses the desk research method and an analysis of the results of interviews with experts as well as deductions and inductions. The results of the performed studies made it possible to identify which management accounting tools would best perform as EMA tools.