ENVIRONMENTAL COSTS AND THEIR MANAGEMENT ACCORDING TO THE PERSPECTIVE OF COST ACCOUNTING

Yıl 2013, Cilt: 13 Sayı: 26, 424 - 449, 01.12.2013

Ali Alagöz Duygu İrdiren

Öz

Nowadays, business environment is discussed as an environment in which
company’s performance is determined by social, political and technological factors as
well as “nature” and “natural environment”. The reason beyond that description is that the
companies are in constant interaction with the environment while performing their
activities in order to produce goods and services. The use of non-renewable resources;
solid, liquid and gaseous waste which occur during the production; and waste product
resulting from the use of goods and services produced have a negative impact on the
environment and inevitably raise environmental issues. Hereby, the perception of
sustainable development and environmental protection has started to gain importance in
the business management with the beginning of deterioration of the ecological balance
from rapid consumption and contamination of natural resources globally.
Environmental management includes the efforts of minimizing the impact on
the ecological environment of business activities and managing the effects of environment
on the company. Accepted as practice guidelines, environmental management standards
aim the systematical and continuous execution of the company activities related to the
environment. There are specific environmental management systems used by companies
around the world. BS 7750, published by the British Standards Institute in 1992, is the
first of these systems. Prepared on the basis of BS 7750, ISO 14000 series standards
issued and BS 7750 fell into desuetude in 1996. As the most common environmental
management system in Turkey and around the world, ISO 14001 is based on the Plan-DoCheck-Act
(PDCA) methodology.
The increasing demand for eco-friendly products has enlarged the scope of
environmental management systems, and environmental accounting has been developed
in the frame of the concepts of social responsibility and substance over form. By
International Federation of Accountants, environmental accounting, also called green
accounting in the literature, is described as:
“The management of environmental and economic performance in line with the
convenient environmental developments and practices related to accounting systems and
procedures. Including reporting and control, green accounting is typically associated with
the product life cycle costing, full cost accounting, the benefit assessments and strategic
planning for environmental management in some companies."
Environmental accounting is examined with five interrelated points of view:
Financial Accounting, Cost Accounting, Management Accounting, Environmental Report
and Audit.
Environmental costs are the costs incurred by companies in order to sustain
natural life while preserving the environment at the stages of the production and sales of
goods or services. Classified by depending on the time, cause and scope, and based on
total quality management approach, environmental costs provide accounting records and
information that will help the decision-making processes. Thus, within the scope of
strategic cost management, the environmental costs will be possible to minimize as well
as other operating costs.
In this study, in order to minimize the environmental costs incurred while
preserving the natural environment and the damages to the environment during company
operations, the strategic solutions in cost accounting have been examined in the scope of environmental accounting. Developing as environmental management accounting; it
represents a common approach that enables the information flow between financial
accounting, cost accounting and mass balances in order to raise the material productivity,
reduce environmental impacts and risks and reduce the costs of environmental protection.
In line with the developments which become significant with the consideration of all of
the costs and strategies in the companies, the concept of green business has been
developed. Two of marketing strategies in today’s business, the full product life cycle
costing and target costing have become used for an efficient environmental management
accounting.
Green business means focusing on alternatives which least disturb the
ecological balance or even completely eliminate the damage, selecting subcontractors and
suppliers with this mentality, considering green products and services more than a
marketing strategy, and being the creator of the green life quality. With the concept of
green management which means lower general costs and higher efficiency; the companies
try to invest in alternative energy, tend to renewable energy resources and develop
strategies to reduce the cost and environmental effect of waste. In addition, the companies
can create products which provide greater environmental benefits or have lower
environmental costs compared to their competitors with differentiating their products and
processes.
According to the concept of product life cycle, a product offered on the market
contains various periods and phases of life. These stages are introduction, development,
maturity, and decline. A product life cycle costs include all costs which are design and
development costs, production cost, selling and distribution expenses and after-sales
services and warranty cost generated throughout the product life. The product life cycle
costing method allows pre-realizing and managing product costs in advance. Besides, the
full product life cycle costing method includes the costs of the product to society as
distinct from the consumer costs. The product costs on society can be supposed as waste
of goods at production, usage and disposal stages, packaging waste, pollution and hazards
to human health. In this paper, the differences between whole product life cycle costing
method and product life cycle costing method have been described; and the distinction of
classified environmental costs according to phases of product life and the applicability of
the method have been clarified.
Target costing is usually defined as an efficient system to manage the costs at
the stages of a new product design and development. Target cost is a reduced cost level
that saves the most appropriate expected rate of profit for a product. The aim of
implementation of the target costing method is to manage the functionality of the product
and produce the good at the target cost level. By approaching to the analysis of
environmental costs from this point of view, it is possible to enable management of
environmental costs in the companies. Depending on process and stages of target costing
method, an application has been designed in this study. Adhering to relatively degrees of
importance which is calculated by relationship between eco-friendly product
characteristics and product components, what the costing share of components should be
is determined. Thus, the cost improvements are highlighted after the implementation of
the planning.
The perception of sustainable development and environmental protection has
started to gain importance in the business management with the beginning of deterioration
of the ecological balance from rapid consumption and contamination of natural resources globally. The increasing demand for eco-friendly products has enlarged the scope of
environmental management systems, and environmental accounting has been developed
in the frame of the concepts of social responsibility and substance over form. In this
study, in order to minimize the environmental costs incurred while preserving the natural
environment and the damages to the environment during company operations, the
strategic solutions in cost accounting have been examined in the scope of environmental
accounting. By classifying the environmental costs in a comparative manner, whole
product life cycle costing method has been described, and an application has been
designed for target costing method on environmental costs

Anahtar Kelimeler

Green business, Environmental accounting, Environmental costs, Product life cycle costing method

MALİYET MUHASEBESİ BAKIŞ AÇISI İLE İŞLETMELERDE ÇEVRE MALİYETLERİ VE YÖNETİMİ

Öz

Tüm dünyada doğal kaynakların hızla tüketilmesi ve kirletilmesi sonucu ekolojik dengenin bozulmaya başlaması ile birlikte; işletmelerde sürdürülebilir kalkınma anlayışı ve çevre koruma bilinci önem kazanmaya başlamıştır. Çevre dostu ürünlere olan talebin piyasada artmasıyla çevre yönetim sistemlerinin kapsamı genişlemiş, sosyal sorumluluk ve özün önceliği kavramları çerçevesinde çevre muhasebesi geliştirilmiştir. Bu çalışmada; işletmelerin çevreyi koruyarak doğal yaşamı sürdürebilmek için katlandıkları çevre maliyetlerini ve faaliyetleri sırasında çevreye verecekleri zararları minimize edebilmek amacıyla, maliyet muhasebesinde yer alan stratejik çözümler çevre muhasebesi kapsamında incelenmiştir. Çevre maliyetleri karşılaştırmalı bir şekilde sınıflandırılarak, tam ürün yaşam seyri maliyetleme yöntemi açıklanmış; çevre maliyetlerinde hedef maliyetleme yöntemi için bir uygulama tasarlanmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Yeşil İşletme, Çevre Muhasebesi, Çevre Maliyetleri, Ürün Yaşam Seyri Maliyetlemesi