Green Accounting - A Helping Instrument in European Harmonisation of Environmental Standards

Abstract

In today's global economy, organizations are increasingly called upon to demonstrate sound business management that includes concern for economic, social and environmental issues. The challenges created by global competition make it imperative for enterprises to continually rationalize and improve all resources and processes. Separation of responsibilities for the processes that underpin organizational outputs is unsustainable in today's competitive environment (Guido Guertler, 2001).

On the base of literature review, we assert that recent achievements proved that ISO's management system standards have a global relevance of and a capacity to benefit from the very largest to the very smallest organizations in both public and private sectors. An Environmental Management System (EMS) provides a solid framework for meeting environmental challenges and realizing the above benefits.

Most environmental legislation now originates at the European level, where the main legal instruments are EU directives and regulations. Traditionally, environmental regulation has covered the environmental media. From the early 1990s, a more integrated approach has been taken across all media with Integrated Pollution Control (IPC) and, more recently, the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) European Directive (EC, 1996).

We describe in our research the main types of environmental standards used across Europe and their impact on businesses performance. In conclusion we analyse the future key areas the environmental legislation is likely to be developed in.

Keywords: Green Accounting, Environmental Management Systems, Environmental Statements, Environmental Performance

JEL Classification: M10, M41, Q28