Journal of Management (JOM) Volume 5, Issue 4, July–Aug 2018, pp. 349–362, Article ID: JOM_05_04_036 Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/jom/issues.asp?JType=JOM&VType=5&IType=4 ISSN Print: 2347-3940 and ISSN Online: 2347-3959 © IAEME Publication ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING: A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITIES’ EDUCATIONAL CURRICULUM Musarrat Ara Research Scholar, School of Commerce, Reva University, Bengaluru, 560064, India Dr. Harani B Guide, Assistant Professor, School of Commerce, Reva University, Bengaluru, 560064, India ABSTRACT The increasing potential of Environmental accounting has been adopted from business practices to universities curriculum during the last few years. The objective of this study is to gather information on the universities who have integrated the concepts of Environmental Accounting and Reporting in their educational program of undergraduates and postgraduates at commerce and management level through case study of 100 Universities from 10 countries to bring out how these subjects make student to think critically on major and minor environmental issues created due to business operation for sustainable development. This paper also highlights the need and importance of integrating Environment Accounting in Indian Educational Curriculum. Key words: Environmental Accounting and Reporting, Sustainability Accounting, University Curriculum. Cite this Article: Musarrat Ara and Dr. Harani B, Environmental Accounting and Reporting: A Case Study of Universities’ Educational Curriculum. Journal of Management, 5(4), 2018, pp. 349–362. http://www.iaeme.com/jom/issues.asp?JType=JOM&VType=5&IType=4 1. INTRODUCTION Natural resources like land, water, air, energy, etc. are the main inputs of any business process. The rapid development in industries are causing more environmental issues like pollution, carbon emission, green house effects, water and air contamination, land and soil contamination, loss of biodiversity etc. So, accountability towards environment has become one of the most essential areas of social responsibility. Our traditional accounting system is limited to record and report financial information of the business process for internal and external stakeholders. This limitation can be removed by implementing Environmental Accounting and Reporting over the traditional accounting system, but requires good knowledge, training and standard guideline. http://www.iaeme.com/JOM/index.asp 349 [email protected] Musarrat Ara and Dr. Harani B Universities are the future builder of our nation, implementation of EAR in university curriculum will help the teachers as well as students in understanding the concept of environmental assets, environmental liabilities, environmental cost, environmental pollution, environmental audit and other environmental contingencies caused in the business operation. EAR in university course will act as a long-term awareness tool for environmental related matters like preventing pollution, producing clean and green product, in developing environmental management systems, green supply chain systems and much more. 1.1. THEORITICAL BACKGROUND OF ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING AND REPORTING (E.A.R.) - At Glance The issue of environmental responsibility and the sustainable industrial development has given birth to new branch of accounting i.e. environmental accounting and reporting. Environmental accounting is relatively a recent entrant in the domain of accounting. It is the process of identification, measurement and communication of information in the environmental responsibility performance of an entity to permit economic decision. In the other words, “Environmental accounting forms that part of accounting that deals with environmental concerns”. The economic development without environmental considerations can cause serious environmental damage. This in turn is daggering the life of present as well as future generations. According to Ministry of Environment, Japan: Environmental accounting, aims at achieving sustainable development, maintaining a favourable relationship with the community, and pursuing effective and efficient environmental conservation activities. These accounting procedures allow a company to identify the cost of environmental conservation during the normal course of business, identify benefit gained from such activities, and provide the best possible means of quantitative measurement (in monetary value or physical units) and support the communication of its results. 2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE (Mathews, 2002) Argues that however, the technical percept of accounting is seen in educational process as well as in our professional life but there is need to do more additions in both the areas. Education to an individual is to make him able to adopt changes, to develop his skills and helps him to get updated by replacing it with new skills. There is need of introducing updated theoretical and practical basis for the new generation accountants either as a separate subject or as a part of current Accounting theories. [[1]] (Reyes, 2002) reveals that Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants (PICPA) are conducting various activities in spreading and educating its members about the basic concept of environmental accounting and the modern environmental related approaches by three ways firstly by continuation of their profession by education which is termed as CPE (Continuing Professional Education), secondly by assimilating Environmental Accounting in the accountancy curriculum for undergraduates and thirdly by sharing the information on Environmental Accounting through written materials in conferences, seminars, etc. [[2]] (Pattanayak, Das, & Sen, 2008) took the perception of management students for integrating Environmental Reporting practices in their management accounting course and reveal that their perceptions vary significantly before and after implication. [[3]] (Sen, Choubey, & Pattanayak , 2010) Examined the perception of industry experts about the assimilation of environmental accounting in Indian management course. They revealed that the concern towards the environmental damages and problems caused by business activities http://www.iaeme.com/JOM/index.asp 350 [email protected] Environmental Accounting and Reporting: A Case Study of Universities’ Educational Curriculum encourage the integration of Environmental Accounting in management program ultimately benefiting their organisation in coming time. [[3]] (Muninarayanappa & Amaladas, 2014) identified the importance of saving the Environment for sustainable development and suggested that Environmental Accounting should be included in the university curriculum for undergraduate and postgraduate students of commerce and management. The authors' proposed module for EA syllabus aims to study the global trends of environmental accounting, make better understandings of various pollutants and their measurements, and also to measure and account for environmental abasement and its disclosure in the financial statement. This integration will help teachers to train and implement the environmental accounting and in achieving the dream of Green Environment in the coming time. (Das, 2016) made an attempt to highlight the environmental awareness in developing nations like India and discuss the problems associated with the implementation of environmental accounting. Although in India, Environmental Accounting has been contempt by different irregularities, it has become an emerging characteristic which has to be considered in accounting schema within the corporate sphere. The revealed point of author is that planning for sustainable economic development requires an estimate of environmentally adjusted GNP. The concept of environmental accounting suffers from certain problems viz. poor valuation techniques, partial values, uncertainty in values, changing social values, non-economic values, individual and aggregate values, incremental and relative values, inapplicable assumptions, uncertainty and risk, lack of reliable industry data, etc. [[6]] (May, 2017) wrote that “At the 71st UN General Assembly (UNGA) education was a clear focus on the agenda. There is an acknowledgement that the success of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) rests on the achievement of SDG4: universal high-quality education for all… I believe it can only be achieved through innovative models that deliver meaningful reform.” [[7]] 2.1. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY The objective of this study is to gather information of the universities who have integrated the concepts of Environmental Accounting and Reporting in their educational program for undergraduates and postgraduates at commerce and management level and also to bring out how these subjects make student to think critically on major and minor environmental issues created due to business operation for making sustainable development. 2.2. SCOPE OF THE STUDY This study throw light on the upgraded curriculum of different universities in India and abroad which create a landmark for other universities to upgrade the traditional and conventional subject for achieving sustainability through education. It also gives avenue to researchers to work on developing Environmental Accounting theory and practices which can be implemented in course structure of accounting programs in India. 3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY A case study of 100 universities of countries from Australia, Bangladesh, China, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, United Kingdom and United States has been conducted through the secondary