ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING (EMA) IMPLEMENTATION: MOTIVATION AND EXPECTED RESULTS FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is concerned with physical and monetary information, therefore enabling a new type of analysis that supports decision making while considering the environmental dimension. However, for an organization to apply EMA is necessary to meet business requirements and therefore the potential benefits and likely costs of the implementation should be assessed in the first place. The first objective of this paper is to highlight the reasons for implementation of EMA referring to eco-efficiency, cost-effectiveness, investment appraisal, strategic positioning and compliance. The second is to presents a high-level blueprint for EMA implementation for a theoretical company and highlight the factors that influence the success of the implementation. The conclusions suggest that given the multitude of EMA methodologies, comparative studies might shed more light for practitioners.