Chapters authored
Greening Accounting: An Inevitable Link to Help Firms Connect with Sustainability
The last decade has seen developments challenging the abilities of managerial accounting theories in supporting firms with environmental conscious decision-making that are grounded in the expanded accountability of firms toward nature and society. Critical theorists have argued that the shortcomings of the accounting theories to interpret the impacts of business activities on nature have its origin in the missing accounting standards, under-defined contractual boundaries, and the absence of a valid numéraire (monetary equivalency). In this chapter, the author posits that these shortcomings are a legacy of the economic paradigm within which the accounting frameworks operate and would remain so, unless a paradigm change evolves to handle environmental-related considerations on its own, even if it means rewriting rules to generate accounting interpretations of business activities. Instead of offering a methodological solution, this chapter ideates how having “environment” as integral to the accounting paradigm would enable firms in evaluating, accounting, and reporting environmental performance transparently and improve flow of information to help management face sustainability-related challenges better.
Part of the book: Accounting and Corporate Reporting
Greening Accounting II: Exploring Feasibility of Environmental Accounting Framework
Exploring the theme of greening accounting in the previous chapter led us to examine the challenges of managerial accounting in supporting firms with the environmentally conscious decision-making and ideate how integrating environmental viewpoint within accounting can be achieved through a new construct that would support firms in integrating ‘environmental well-being’ as a core concern. In this chapter, the argument is validated by experimenting with a real-life case study and exploring challenges to enact the proposed construct. This not only tests the feasibility of the construct from an accounting perspective, including how information generated through it could be leveraged to meet corresponding information needs of firms without sacrificing transparency and auditability, but also advances the argument of greening accounting to redefine how the concerned information needs of firms and stakeholders can be identified and perceived in relation to the micro-level application of sustainability.
Part of the book: Accounting and Corporate Reporting