Note: EPA no longer updates this information, but it may be useful as a reference or resource.
Resources
Overview and General Guidance
Case Studies and Benchmarking Studies
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Overview and General Guidance
The Lean and
Green Supply Chain: A Practical Guide for Material Managers and Supply
Chain Managers to Reduce Costs and Improve Environmental Performance -
January 2000. This booklet illustrates the efficiency-enhancing opportunities
that arise when companies incorporate environmental costs and benefits
into mainstream materials and supply chain management decision-making.
It provides introductory guidance on how to identify these costs and benefits
and how to adjust existing information systems and analysis techniques
to better account for this significant category of costs. (EPA 742-R-00-001,
58 pages) (PDF)
An Introduction
to Environmental Accounting as a Business Management Tool: Key Concepts
and Terms - June 1995. This paper presents an overview of environmental
accounting for those unfamiliar with environmental accounting. It describes
what environmental accounting is, why it is important, outlines some application
options, and presents key concepts, definitions, and issues. (EPA 742-R-95-001,
39 pages) (PDF)
Valuing Potential
Environmental Liabilities for Managerial Decision-Making: A Review of
Available Techniques - December 1996. This report describes publicly
available approaches and tools that have been developed specifically for
estimating the monetary value of potential, preventable environmental
liability costs. (EPA 742-R-96-003, 114 pages) (PDF)
Case Studies and Benchmarking Studies
Enhancing Supply
Chain Performance with Environmental Cost Information: Examples from Commonwealth
Edison, Andersen Corporation, and Ashland Chemical - December 2000.
This case study report illustrates how supply chain management practices
can be improved by determining the financial impact of environmental improvements.
Moreover, this report shows how this approach can be integrated into ongoing
business processes. This case study focuses on multi-disciplinary processes
that have been implemented by three companies: Commonwealth Edison, Anderson
Corporations and Ashland Chemical Company. While the approaches vary among
these companies, each one provides valuable lessons for other companies.
The Enhancing Supply Chain Performance with Environmental Cost Information:
Examples from Commonwealth Edison, Andersen Corporation, and Ashland Chemical
is a companion piece and practical illustration of the principles laid
out in The Lean and Green Supply Chain: A Practical Guide for Material
Managers and Supply Chain Managers to Reduce Costs and Improve Environmental
Performance. (PDF)
Healthy Hospitals:
Environmental Improvement Through Environmental Accounting - July
2000. This report, by the Tellus Institute, describes current applications
of environmental managerial accounting in nine US hospitals. Based on
interviews of materials managers and environmental, health and safety
staff, this report discusses the current status of environmental managerial
accounting in hospitals and describes opportunities for hospitals to apply
environmental managerial accounting to improve environmental performance
and reduce costs. It also includes two case studies that demonstrate how
hospitals applied environmental managerial accounting techniques to justify
switching to a mercury-free alternatives and Ethylene Oxide minimization.
(PDF)
Searching for
the Profit in Pollution Prevention: Case Studies in the Corporate Evaluation
of Environmental Opportunities - April 1998. This paper, written by
James Boyd of Resources for the Future, presents three case studies on
the decision-making processes surrounding pollution prevention investments
at three large chemical manufacturing organizations: Dow, Monsanto, and
Dupont. The case studies illuminate significant challenges facing P2 that
may need to be studied and addressed by policy makers and industry alike.
The cases demonstrate, for example, that corporate organizational or accounting
weaknesses are not always at fault for firms' failure to adopt P2 alternatives.
Instead, these particular projects foundered because of significant unresolved
technical difficulties, marketing challenges, and regulatory barriers.
The paper concludes with a discussion of environmental policy reforms
and areas of research that the author feels are likely to promote P2 innovation.
(EPA 742-R-98-005, 59 pages) (PDF)
Environmental
Cost Accounting for Chemical and Oil Companies: A Benchmarking Study
- June 1997. This report summarizes an environmental cost accounting benchmarking
study of five major U.S. and Mexican companies that are developing environmental
accounting systems. The purpose of this study was to allow the company
participants to discuss the form and functions of their environmental
accounting systems and the uses for the cost information yielded by such
systems. This study was undertaken by the University of Houston's Institute
for Corporate Environmental Management in partnership with the Business
Council for Sustainable Development - Gulf of Mexico. (EPA 742-R-97-004,
60 pages) (PDF)
Applying Environmental
Accounting to Electroplating Operations: An In-Depth Analysis - May
1997. This report presents research findings regarding the implementation
of environmental accounting practices in the electroplating industry,
including information on the types and magnitude of environmental costs
this industry incurs, the feasibility of improving the tracking of each
of these costs, recommendations for investigating these environmental
cost structures, and conclusions regarding the potential for wider adoption
and application of environmental accounting concepts in this industry.
(EPA 742-R-97-003, 55 pages) (PDF)
Environmental
Accounting Case Studies: Full Cost Accounting for Decision Making at Ontario
Hydro - May 1996. This case study offers a comprehensive account of
one public utility 's efforts to account for internal and external environmental
costs. Useful data for other companies is included, such as external cost
estimates for fossil fuel and nuclear energy production, methods for estimating
internal and external costs, and methods for incorporating environmental
accounting concepts into planning and decisionmaking. (EPA 742-R-95-004,
100 pages) (PDF)
Environmental
Accounting Case Studies: Green Accounting at AT&T - September
1995. This case study reports AT&T 's developing position on "Green
Accounting " as defined by AT&T as of July 1995. It outlines
actions AT&T has taken to implement Environmental Accounting and includes
their Green Accounting Glossary and excepts from their Green Activity
Matrix. (EPA 742-R-95-003, 55 pages) (PDF)
Environmental
Cost Accounting for Capital Budgeting: A Benchmark Survey for Management
Accounting - September 1995. A part survey of 149 US manufacturing
firms on the manner and extent to which those firms consider environmental
costs an their routine capital budgeting processes, especially in the
context of evaluating potential environmental investments. This study
was done in collaboration with the Institute of Management Accounting.
(EPA 742-R-95-005, 81 pages) (PDF- Part 1
| Part 2 | Part
3)