Accounting Framework to Measure the Environmental Costs and Disclosed in Industrials Companies—Case Study of Societe Cement Hamma Bouziane (SCHB) in Constantine
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Chinese Business Review, ISSN 1537-1506 D June 2014, Vol. 13, No. 6, 356-366 DAVID PUBLISHING Accounting Framework to Measure the Environmental Costs and Disclosed in Industrials Companies—Case Study of Societe Cement Hamma Bouziane (SCHB) in Constantine Hanane Saidi Sief University of Constantine 2, Constantine, Algeria Accounting, being an integrated information system, is not merely influenced by its environment, but also affects environment as well, due to its crucial role in generating the necessary information to decision-makers. It has two main pillars: measuring and declaring the costs that result from the activities of companies, especially industrial companies because they affect the environment. Therefore, the objective of this research is to investigate how well industrial companies are committed to measuring their environmental duties and declaring them in their balance sheets. This topic will be developed over two parts: scientific basis of environmental costs and accounting; environmental measuring and disclosure. Keywords: environmental costs, environmental accounting, environmental measuring and disclosure Introduction The interaction with the environment in its various facets requires the contribution of different arenas from miscellaneous fields and scientific specialties—that is because the environmental studies often depend on the new fruitful results arrived at in such fields—this could patiently show the importance of the environment in tracing and evaluating the direction of scientific and technological developements, taking into account that the environment is the main source of the resources used by the industrial institutions in their productive processes. There are those who believe that the industrializing and developing processes have greatly, but negatively, contributed to environment pollution—that is due to the negligence of environment-proper considerations when planning out the industrial process. As a consequence, it caused the prodigal loss of primary resources as well as energy. In addition, it ensued from the so-called ambitions plans with regard to realizing the fast growth, together with the excess in intensity of the competition among the institutions functioning in similar sectors. The latter resulted in negative effects on the environment. The accountants encounter difficulty in measuring the charges ensued from these monetarily. The industrial institutions are held responsible for that, because they know the environmental costs. Hanane Saidi Sief, Master on management sciences, faculty of economics, commerce and management sciences, University Constantine 2, Constantine, Algeria. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Hanane Saidi Sief, No.1 Building 29, Ain El Bey, City of Ahmed Bouamama, Constantine, Algeria. Phone number: 2130791168559. E-mail: [email protected]. ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS AND DISCLOSED IN INDUSTRIALS COMPANIES 357 As a result of all that, it is mandatory that all the various institutions, particularly those functioning in environment sensitive industries, take into account all the environmental consideration, when evaluating the environmental revenue. This would require them to develop a professional method in measuring, so as to seriously care about the environment—proper matters which the accountancy possesses within its branches, a side relating to the environment and its issues. Therefore all that is executed within the framework of environmental costs account. Accounting aims at availing future effective information for decision-takers and the environmental policies-makers, and this would purposefully indicate all the environmental social costs of all the processes and activities targeting the protection of the environment from the direct and the indirect disadvantages. In doing so, they depend on two firm bases: measurement and the accounting disclosure about the environmental performance. Problems The problems are summed up in the attempt to know the extent to which the industrial institutions reached in the accounting measurement, their environmental effects, and their disclosure about them. It becomes a necessity especially for its big monetary costs and also the obligations owing to the pollution they cause in the environment. So, the problems can be imbued in the following main query: To what extent do the industrial institutions pursue their obligation in measuring their environmental costs and disclosure those in their financial lists? Significance of Research The significance of this study springs from the excessive interest in holding the social and environmental responsibility. So, the social revenue is taking precedence over its monetary revenue. In addition, the efficiency of the accounting system is measured by the availability of a secondary system which would give information about the environmental performance of the institutions and its effects on society. The study is also important to all institutions of different plans and inclinations so as to actualize the social and environmental dimensions in future plan. That would help them realize their aims and help society in the continual development. Also, they will guarantee their continuity and possibility of evaluating the performance objectively and comparing them to those of other institutions. Moreover, they would put on a competitive feature as the information concerning the environmental performance is of a quantitative and monetary nature. Thus, that makes them affect, in a direct way, the monetary centre of the institution and the result of their activity. Objectives of the Research This research aims to specify the state of the accounting measurement and disclosure about the environmental charges in those industrial institutions. The latter can be done through realizing the following offshoot aims: clarifying the nature of environmental costs and the ways of their measuring and the requirements of their disclosure; tackling the environmental accountancy basics; analyzing the causes of the constrainment of the accounting measurement by industrial institutions’ environmental performance and their disclosure about it, and the most important hindrances that impede them to do that. Research Methodology The study of the topic “Accounting framework to measure the environmental costs and disclosed in 358 ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS AND DISCLOSED IN INDUSTRIALS COMPANIES industrial enterprises” in alterations and the attempt to link all these alterations should lead to utilize two approaches: the analytical descriptive method, which is used in the theoretical part of this study because of its dependence on describing the Phenomenon under study and summing up the most crucial results that can be arrived at; a case study within the practical part. Scientific Basis of Environmental Costs and Accounting Environmental Costs—Definition and Classification Environmental costs—Definition. That the business sector industrial enterprises include environmental considerations constantly working to improve the environmental performance in the long-term strategy for the environment and ensure the survival of the institutions in the market has been realized. Accountants are faced with the problem of measuring the costs of pollution forms of cash, which is expressed in environmental costs (Al Doussari, 2007, p. 18). Expenditures incurred to prevent, contain, or remove environmental contamination. Such costs are generally expensed. However, only in the following cases, the company may elect to either expense or defer the costs: (1) the expenditures either extend the life or capacity of the asset or increase the property’s safety; (2) the expenditures are made to get the property ready for sale; and (3) the expenditures prevent or lessen environmental contamination that may result from future activities of property owned (Retrieved from http://www.answers.com/topic/environmental-costs) According to USA Environmental Protection Agency, the definition of environmental cost depends on utilization of information in a company and the environmental costs can include conventional costs (raw materials and energy costs with the environmental relevance), potentially hidden costs (costs which are captured by accounting system but then lose their identity in overheads), contingent costs (costs in a future time—contingent liabilities), and image and relationship costs (Betianu, 2013, p. 125) Classification of environmental costs. The novelty of this type of costs differed researchers in the classification and a review of these views can divide environmental costs into the following (Al Sharairi & Al Awawdeh, 2011, p. 80). The division for sustainable development of the United Nations has proposed a definition of environmental costs that distinguishes four types of costs: The first one is related to all the efforts made by organizations to reduce the environmental effects of their activities, by using “end-of-pipe” measures and technologies; The second one is related to all activities made by organizations to prevent their environmental effects before the end of the production process, for example, by using cleaner technologies or by establishing environmental management systems; The third and fourth types of cost are defined on the idea that anything that does not enter the product produced by a company is a non-product output, such as wastes, waste water, or lost energy, and that all costs associated to this non-product output are regarded as environmental costs. These include both the