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Following a major oil spill, industrial accident, or other compliance crisis, sophisticated companies typically conduct a thorough internal investigation using legal counsel. After the investigation, the company takes corrective actions [...]

The Reports Consolidation Act of 2000 requires EPA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) to report on what it considers to be the most serious management and performance challenges facing EPA. [...]

Financial report environmental disclosure has been widely criticized because the extent of disclosure both varies in response to exposures facing the firm and because it is not an accurate measure of firm environmental performance. This study suggests there are at least two potential problems that need to be addressed before this disclosure can be completely condemned as meaningless. A first potential problem is the earlier studies' focus on broad measures of environmental disclosure. Hidden within those broader measures may be pieces of meaningful information. Second, while the disclosure examined previously may not correspond well with past environmental performance, it, or at |east parts of it, may still provide meaningful information for assessing future environmental action. This study attempts to address these shortcomings by examining one specific, but potentially useful, category of environmental disclosure: projections of future spending for pollution abatement and control equipment. Based on 355 sets of projected/actual spending drawn from 10K reports filed with the US's Security and Exchange Commission between 1993 and 2002, inclusive, results suggest that the projections may be more misleading than meaningful. Actual spending was lower than the projected amount for more than 75% of the observations, and the mean projection error (the difference adjusted for the size of the projection) was a negative 16.4%. Analysis of projection errors for a 2-year, rather than a 1-year window revealed a similar distribution. In contrast to the accuracy of the environmental capital expenditure projections, the actual/projection difference for total capital expenditures was very small, suggesting that it is not a difficulty in estimating future capital spending that is driving the error results. The projection errors also did not appear to be a function of changes in company revenues or profitability. Overall, therefore, it appears that, similar to broader measures of corporate environmental disclosure, projections of future spending on environmental control lack value.

Environmental stewardship must become a primary concern if management is to adequately fulfil its societal responsibilities. Management and accounting information systems must aggressively respond to these emerging requirements in order to support adequately the associated information needs as well as to design organizational systems that motivate and facilitate desired behavior. Our purpose here is to consider a framework useful for developing environmentally enlightening management and accounting information systems that take into account alternative environmental perspectives. The framework can be used to develop prototypes representing different levels of environmental enlightenment, and as such, can provide general guidance for moving collectives and organizations toward a more environmentally responsible posture. The framework is illustrated using an example from the salmon farming industry provided in [Geogakopoulous, G., & Thomson, I., 2004. Organic salmon farming: Risk perceptions, decision heuristics and the absence of environmental accounting. In Proceedings of the Asia Pacific Interdisciplinary Research in Accounting. Singapore, July 4-7, 2004, this paper has since been published in this edition of Accounting Forum]. Keywords: Enabling accounting; Environmental responsibility; Environmental strategy; Sustainability

There is some evidence that private social, ethical and environmental reporting (SEER) between companies and their core institutional investors has started to evolve over recent years. However, there is little research exploring the private SEER process in detail. This paper seeks to address this evolving area of corporate communication using interviews. The evidence reveals a series of mutual benefits to companies and institutional investors arising from the private SEER process. Companies are gaining from SEE engagement and dialogue, as they are using the process to inform public SEE disclosure. They are using private SEE disclosure to preempt investor surprises. Institutional investors are benefiting from the supplementary SEE information gained in private communications with investee companies. They are also using information on managers' SEE performance gained from private dialogue, as a proxy for management quality. The private SEE disclosure process appears to be nurturing mutual understanding between companies and their core institutional investors. Drawing from a pedagogic perspective, applied previously to SER and stakeholder engagement, as well as to accounting education, we show that 'good' private SEE disclosure should take on the characteristics of a dialogic, problem-posing, educative process. We consider four potential outcomes. Such a process may demythologize SEE issues. However, there is also the possibility that a recreated joint myth may emerge from collaborative dialogue between two such powerful groups. Other possible outcomes are that companies may capture the process in order to perpetuate their own SEE myth or that private SEE disclosure may dwindle as public SEE disclosure improves. Keywords: Private social, ethical and environmental (SEE) disclosure; Public SEE disclosure; Institutional investors; Dialogic

This study examines the relation between the market value of equity and nonfinancial pollution measures (sulfur dioxide emissions) that capture firms' exposure to future environmental liabilities. I find that a nonfinancial pollution proxy is value-relevant for high-polluting electric utilities targeted for air pollution abatement by Phase One of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA). On average, these utilities' exposure to (unbooked) future environmental liabilities decreased their mean 1990 share price by 16 percent. Moreover, the value relevance of the nonfinancial pollution proxy (1) increased in response to the passage of the stringent 1990 CAAA environmental legislation, and then (2) declined as the market subsequently reduced estimated compliance costs in response to changing economic and technological factors. Utilities not targeted by Phase One of the 1990 CAAA faced minimal exposure to future environmental liabilities and I find no significant relation between their pollution indicators and share prices. I also find that investors in the high-polluting rate-regulated utilities that were targeted by Phase One positively value a favorable regulatory climate. Key Words: Nonfinancial information, Environmental liabilities, Market valuation, Utilities.

The IS0 14000 series offers an international standard for environmental management systems (EMS). Companies wishing to receive ISO 14000 certification need to meet four requirements: commitment to minimise waste and prevent pollution; commitment to on-going improvement; EMS implementation; and law and regulation compliance via set procedures. Parallels are drawn between ISO 9000 and ISO 14000.

Balancing economic benefits and environmental threats Companies must constantly monitor changes in environmental law and the business risks associated with them. Astute executives, controllers, auditors, investors, and management accountants must [...]

Venture capital companies, in the UK, are having to consider new environmental legislation from the UK environmental Agency and from the European Union. Venture capitalists are having to cope with the implications of environmental concerns as they invest in firms over longer periods. Environmental due diligence has become a important area for consideration within deals. Environmental consultants have more work and some are planning to use their expertise in Eastern European countries. Environmental Resource Management works in 35 countries for large law firms and corporations.

Failing to adequately consider the potential impact of workplace safety and health issues in an acquisition can prove a costly mistake. Today's business world is a global marketplace where everything […]

Environmental auditing is an ongoing management information system used by a company to assess its performance in relation to both external environmental legislation and internally formulated environmental policies. Compliance is the most important advantage of an environmental audit. Environmental audits also benefit business planning, employee development and public relations. Management's application of total quality management (TQM) to environmental auditing can extend the analysis to environmental impact. The search for improvement is a continuous activity in TQM.

Accountants are becoming an important part of environmental compliance management as issues of cost are analyzed to evaluate different compliance alternatives. Cost is not a dirty word in environmental management any longer, and a multidisciplinary approach, including accountants, is needed to provide effective environmental compliance management. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.), The dynamic nature of America's environmental law and the complexities of environmental compliance management have driven many businesses to manage their operations 'beyond compliance' in order to avoid even the [...]

Manufacturers are using predictive models to reduce the high costs that accompany environmental compliance. The predictive models are obtained through software programs which show how various technologies will perform at different processing plants. Companies which are using the models will know the results of pollution control measures even without experimenting. The models are also useful when making operational decisions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is being ired by many companies' insistence on avoiding the subject of environmental liability to prevent negative investor reactions. Other companies, although admitting responsibility, fail to reflect acknowledged environmental costs in their corporate financial statements. SEC issued Staff Accounting Bulletin 92 to pressure companies into acknowledging liability and has asked the EPA to help in the liability effort.

Public utilities companies need to protect themselves against the increasingly stern penalties for environmental violations by instituting company-wide environmental policies. Utilities need to comply with auditors and with existing environmental policy, and they need to demonstrate that they have the resources to implement their own compliance should something be amiss. Such companies should train their management teams to be aware of regulation, and their employees should be encouraged to report on violations. Full disclosure and compliance are beneficial to both the companies and the environment., Companies nationwide are recognizing the potentially highly burdensome, painful consequences of an environmental violation, the penalty for which may be an administrative proceeding and sanction or, increasingly, a civil judicial [...]

As environmental rules become more complex and enforcement penalties increase, companies are simultaneously having to 'do more with less' due to economic pressures. Is there relief in sight? Probably not. [...]

Internal auditors are responsible for coordinating managerial control of their firm's hazardous materials. Management procedures on the processing, transportation and removal of toxic materials should be subjected to periodic reviews. Internal auditors conduct environmental audits to determine whether their firms comply with environmental laws and to anticipate possible problems in environmental management practices.