The European Accounting Review 2000, 9:1, 31-52
Environmental management
accounting in Europe: current
practice and future potential
Matteo Bartolomeo
Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei, Milan, Italy
Martin Bennett
Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher
Education, UK
Jan Jaap Bouma
Erasmus University, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Peter Heydkamp
IBM Germany, Stuttgart, Germany
Peter James
University of Bradford, UK
Teun Wolters
EIM Small Business Research and Consultancy,
Zoetermeer, The Netherlands
ABSTRACT
This paper reports and analyses the results of a trans-European project to inves-
tigate the present and potential future links between the environmental management
and management accounting functions of a company or business. A taxonomy of
four broad but distinct approaches to environmental accounting is identified from
the literature: external financial reporting; social accountability reporting; energy
and materials accounting; and environmental management accounting. This project
focuses on the latter - the generation, analysis and use of financial and related
non-financial information, in order to support management within a company or
business, in integrating corporate environmental and economic policies and build-
ing sustainable business. The research involved interviews with accountants' and
Address for correspondence
Dr J. J. Bouma, Erasmus University, Erasmus Centre for Environmental Studies, P.O.
Box 1738, 3000 Rotterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: bouma(gfsw.eur.nl
Copyright © 2000 European Accounting Association
ISSN 0963-8180 print/ISSN 1468-4497 online
Published by Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd on behalf of the EAA
32 The European Accounting Review
environmental managers at eighty-four companies in Germany, Italy, The Nether-
lands and the UK, and detailed case studies of fifteen companies in those four
countries. The paper summarizes the findings of the research and their implications
for four core hypotheses, goes on to discuss international differences, and concludes
by reviewing the i