The ‘vibe of the thing’ is towards development of easier to quantify monetary environmental performance measures as the main bottom line of concern to managers, with a focus on buying as cheaply as possible (economy), as few inputs as possible (efficiency – see Stone, 1995) and minimal concern for desired environmental outputs and outcomes (effectiveness). The balanced scorecard holds up promise here, for increasing stakeholder value, placing environmental interests within it based on acceptable sets of environmental indicators and at the same time beginning to focus on the inevitable conflicts with other stakeholders
Additional research studies are needed that
provide relevant environmental information for practical decisions that involve corporate environmental impacts within local government and other commercial government operations and non-profit organizations;
incorporate long-term (strategic) considerations in the corporate decision making, planning and control processes (short and long term);
use an articulated framework that incorporates information about environmental stocks (e.g. monetary assets and liabilities and physical inventories of species and materials) as well as environmental flows;
avoid arbitrary cost allocation mechanisms that encourage relatively adverse environmental
outcomes (e.g. undercosting of dirty products and processes) and, possibly under the guise of the precautionary principle,introduce cost allocation mechanisms that encourage and lead to better environmental outcomes (Burritt, 1997, p. 91) and
move towards the integration of environmental indicators in individual, group and sub-unit performance and all aspects of the corporate value chain – for example, integration
of ecological footprints.
To encourage broad dissemination to, and take-up by, a wide range of organizations, environmental management accounting systems need to be relevant to the issues at hand, available at low cost, provide simple integration with existing management accounting systems or environmental management systems and be reliable.