Cleaner Technology Projects in Denmark 1997
The Environmental Account
Miljøregnskabet
Miljørapport nr. 370, 1997, Miljøstyrelsen
This is a model to state and report the companies’ environmental performances. The purpose of the environmental account is to give the interested parties and the public in general an insight into the environmental affairs of the company. The environmental account is to give information about: The capability of the company to comply with environmental obligations, how the company administrates public demands and to which extent the company allocates funds to invest in cleaner technology, changes of production processes, product development and further education of the employees, in order to prevent environmental damages.
There has been a need to develop some guidelines on how to publicise environmental information in a qualified and structured form at the level of the company, since the concept "Environmental Account" is often used about an account of a process, a product, a company or another definable entity’s effect of the external and internal environment.
The target-group of the project has been defined as interested parties, which have an economical interest in the company; e.g. suppliers, investors, insurance companies, banks and mortgage credit institutions. Other interested parties are Customers, neighbours, employees and environmental authorities.
The common denominator for both of the target groups, when it comes to the financial annual account and the environmental account is that both types of target groups have a interest in information on how the company administrates its values and resources, seen from an economic perspective.
The environmental administration includes decision-making upon:
 | Limits on consumption of resources |
| Possibilities of recycling |
| Reductions of emission |
| Product- and production development |
| Concerns of the nature and environment |
| Health- and security improvements |
When you look upon the life cycle of the company, the environmental administration has an impact on the public administration.
On the basis of this, the target groups are referred to as financial interested parties, in this report.
The goal is that the interested parties will have two information sources:
| A financial account, which describes the financial position of the company |
| An environmental account, describing the environmental position of the company |
Both sources of information must be used when the general classification of risk of the company is evaluated.
The project of the environmental account contains 6 phases:
| Phase 1 is an initial investigation of special characteristics of the environmental accounts, clarification of which environmental information there generally should be given to the interest groups of the company, and which environmental information there specifically should be given to financial interest groups. |
| Phase 2 is an outline of the frames of an environmental account. |
| Phase 3 is an adjustment of the internal registration systems of the participating companies to the requirements in connection with the external environmental account. |
| Phase 4 is an adjustment of the final model of the environmental account, on the basis of the experiences made in phase 3. |
| Phase 5 is a testing of the capability of revising the model and an international hearing. |
| Phase 6 contains a reporting of the project. |
One of the objections often made against the environmental accounts is that the costs of collecting information are too high compared to the potential advantages. However, the increasing demand of getting more environmental information, and the fact that the environment has become a part of national and international legislation, indicate that the environmental accounts are here to stay. It is a fact that the costs of collecting information can be high, and therefore the use of information already collected by the local, regional and national authorities should be intensified.
Author/ institution
Helle Bank Jørgensen, Birgitte Mogensen og Páll M. Rikhardsson, Price Waterhouse /
Seier-Petersen
Morten Als Pedersen, Instituttet for Produktudvikling
This report is subsidised by the National Council for Recycling and Cleaner Technology
ISSN no. 00105-3094
ISBN no. 87-7810-864-0