RIT Symposium Conclusions

May 28, 2008 by Brian Butler | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting, Overview

Accounting and economic valuation may be separate although related issues. The tools and insights of economics can be used at an organizational level to enhance insights into what organizational options might be, but some of the tools need to be developed and explored in more detail. We would encourage the development of bridging tools that work on different levels of aggregation.

Integration of concepts and tools, such as valuation, accounting methods, performance metrics, LCA, eco-efficiency, eco-effectiveness, and the scorecard might benefit from integration of these concepts into a systemic filtering and bundling tool. This might come in the form of a technology complementary to or built into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. (ERP provides the level of oversight and control necessary to ensure that all resources are all working towards the same goal.)
Sharing corporate level environmental cost and benefit information is very difficult and is complicated by issues of trust; loss of competitive advantage; and exposure to potential liability at many levels. Addressing this challenge will require industry level standards and possibly new regulations or new forms of industry collaboration to enable information across supply chains and overall environmental performance enhancement in an industry. The environmental manager might play a role in formulating industry and corporate response to these new standards.

Accounting methods can and should create a system of incentives supporting sound environmental management decisions. Environmental managers need to understand the methods of financial analysis that enable them to make the case for both investment and cost saving measures. Having this knowledge would enable them to better inform decisions related to the reduction of environmental externalities. Unfortunately, most participants did not feel like they were in a position in their organization to truly effect the final decision. Also, many felt the leadership of the organization ultimately determined the extent to which externalities were considered and fully incorporated into the management system and ethos of the company.

EHS managers are recognized as multidisciplinary resources within their firms, interacting with many functional areas within the company. The extent to which they interact with other functional areas varies greatly by firm. Some interacted with product development, marketing, finance, accounting, etc, but others were more limited.

Topic For Discussion

April 24, 2008 by Brian Butler and John Morelli | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting

Our moderator for this topic has chosen to explore the following questions at the symposium workshop:

What are some examples of how the more innovative corporations and countries are internalizing external environmental costs?
How can environmental managers more effectively use these innovative techniques?

Measuring environmentally sustainable development

April 29, 2008 by AROMAKE AFIEGBE | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting, General, Literature Review

Measuring environmentally sustainable development
Gross National Product, while a tool for measurement of a countries well being does not always appropriately capture the full picture specifically to include inequality and poverty, true measure of human resource, environmental impact of various activities and the spiritual, social, political aspects of welfare. Many of these aspects cannot be measured in any quantitative [...]

Environmental cost accounting and auditing

April 28, 2008 by AROMAKE AFIEGBE | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting, General, Literature Review

http://ezproxy.rit.edu/login?url=http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=86066424&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=3589&RQT=309&VName=PQD
A history of the extension of traditional cost accounting systems to account for environmental impacts and their costs goes back toward the end of the 1970’s in Germany where rules were promulgated to calculate the business costs of environmental protection. This article looks at the flow- and decision-oriented perspective of environmental cost accounting as a supplement for [...]

A Business View of Environmental Costs and Opportunities

April 20, 2008 by Emily Ryan | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting

Howard N Aspan. “Environmental value: A business view of environmental costs and opportunities. ” Environmental Quality Management 1 Jul 2002: 75-81. ABI/INFORM Global. ProQuest. RIT Lib., Rochester, NY.. 20 Apr. 2008
This article looks at environmental valuation from a strictly business perspective, placing the options into only three categories: cost, market, and income approaches. It views [...]

Understanding Ecosystems Services as a driver for sustainability 2

by AROMAKE AFIEGBE | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting, Collaboratory, General, Literature Review, TOOLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY

http://www.regionalpartnerships.umn.edu/public/Valuation%20of%20Ecosystems.pdf.
Putting a price tag on an environmental resource or entity seems presumptuous at best, but a necessary step to begin the process of appreciating the holistic dynamics and thorough dependance we have on the environment as a whole. This requires an understanding of the ecosystems and how various ecological entites and services are interwoven so that the effect [...]

Ecosystems Services as a driver for sustainability

April 19, 2008 by AROMAKE AFIEGBE | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting, Collaboratory, General, Literature Review, TOOLS FOR SUSTAINABILITY

Yonghong Bao, Wenliang Wu, Mingxin Wang, Wenna Liu. “Disadvantages and future research directions in valuation of ecosystem services in China. ” International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 14.4 (2007): 372-381. Research Library. ProQuest. RIT Lib., Rochester, NY.. 19 Apr. 2008
The term service provider solicits an immediate attention to the business community in defining [...]

Ecology of Commerce and Valuation

April 10, 2008 by Emily Ryan and jsarkis | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting

In Paul Hawken’s book, “The Ecology of Commerce”, he discusses ways to add unrecognized environmental costs to the free market. He mentions options for this such as producer responsibility and Pigovian taxes which, when working together, could enhance our valuation ability.
If the producer is forced to bear all of the costs associated with the product, then [...]

Can We Put a Price Tag on Nature? Rethinking Approaches to Environmental Valuation

April 1, 2008 by Brian Butler and Emily Ryan | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting

Hajkowicz, Stefan. “Can We Put a Price Tag on Nature? Rethinking Approaches to Environmental Valuation.” Australasian Journal of Environmental Management. Melbourne: March 2007. Vol. 14, Iss. 1, p.22.
Environmental valuation typically involves finding a way to express the value of un-priced ecosystem goods and services in dollar units so that they may be incorporated in benefit [...]

Environmental Valuation Tools

March 25, 2008 by Emily Ryan | Filed under: 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting

Hello Environmental Valuation and Accounting group,
I am an IT manager and an MBA student with concentrations in technology management and environmental sustainability so I have never come across the concept of environmental valuation in my day to day work. Or at least I didn’t think so! After reading up on the topic I realized that [...]

1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting

Evaluating the costs and benefits associated with conventional material and energy products can generally be reduced to a simple examination of their prices as an indication of the willingness of the buyer to pay and the seller to accept compensation for the exchange of these goods and service. However, many of the goods and services provided by the environment do not come with a pricetag (e.g., the appreciation one might have for viewing a natural landscape, or the ability of water bodies to absorb pollution). Environmental valuation involves a number of approaches designed to assess a monetary value to environmental goods and services so that they can be readily considered in economic calculations.

Environmental accounting is the practice of identifying and allocating environment-related costs (generally those that are monitarily quantifiable) directly to the activities that cause them so as to improve the quality of economic decision making.

Taken together, environmental valuation and environmental accounting help move us toward consideration of the full cost of our activities. This is seen by many as a prerequisite for moving our social and economic systems toward sustainability.

The questions we want to ask here are:

- How useful are these tools in moving us toward a more sustainable future?

- How could/should we as environmental managers use these tools?

- How do we ensure that others in our organizations use these tools?

No further subcategories

Recent posts in 1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting

1-Environmental Valuation and Accounting