The Environment in Corporate Management: New Directions and Economic Insights

by Lesourd, Jean-Baptiste; Schilizzi, Steven G. M.; Pearce, David W.

• ISBN13: 9781843764533
• ISBN10: 1843764539
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Pub

Author Biography

Jean-Baptiste Lesourd is a Research Professor in the Groupe de Recherche en Economie Quantitative d'Aix-Marseille (GREQAM) at the Universite de la Mediterranee and Universite de Droit, d'Economie et des Sciences d'Aix-Marseille, France Steven G.M. Schilizzi is Senior Lecturer in Natural Resource and Environmental Economics, School of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, at the University of Western Australia, Australia

Table of Contents

Contents	v
List of Figures	x
List of Tables	xi
List of Boxes	xii
Foreword	xiii
Preface	xvii
Acknowledgements	xix
1. Introduction	1	(14)
1. Purpose and scope	2	(1)
2. Environmental management: an emerging field	3	(2)
3. Environmental management and the stakeholder approach	5	(4)
4. Outline of the book	9	(6)
2. Environmental management and its benefits to the firm's stakeholders	15	(29)
1. Introduction	16	(1)
2. The firm and the environment: general considerations	17	(9)
3. Directly managing environmental resources, or resources with direct environmental effects	26	(8)
4. Managing environmental risks: its benefits to the firm	34	(2)
5. Indirect costs and benefits of environmental management	36	(3)
6. Conclusion	39	(5)
3. Environment and business ethics	44	(50)
1. Introduction	45	(1)
2. Foundations of environmental ethics for business	46	(10)
2.1 Overview	46	(2)
2.2 Environmental ethics	48	(3)
2.3 Foundations of environmental ethics	51	(4)
2.4 Changes in social expectations	55	(1)
3. Corporate environmental ethics	56	(11)
3.1 Ethics and economics: two conflicting sources of corporate governance?	56	(8)
3.2 Ethical values of different stakeholders	64	(1)
3.3 Globalisation and cross-cultural issues	65	(1)
3.4 Environment and the firm's core values and 'corporate culture'	66	(1)
4. Implementing corporate environmental ethics	67	(6)
4.1 Ethical and unethical actions with various stakeholders	68	(2)
4.2 Compliance or proactive initiatives?	70	(2)
4.3 Ethical values across the firm's structure and hierarchy: initiative and implementation	72	(1)
5. Are environmental investments ethical investments?	73	(3)
6. Conclusion	76	(1)
Case study: 'Ethos' (Switzerland)	77	(17)
4. Corporate environmental accounting	94	(56)
1. The foundations of environmental accounting: finance, economics and society	95	(8)
1.1 Definition, scope and purpose	95	(1)
1.2 Benefits and costs	96	(1)
1.3 Environmental accounting and the crisis of traditional accounting	97	(3)
1.4 The appearance of new accountees	100	(3)
2. The practice of environmental accounting	103	(23)
2.1 Overview: the three stages of environmental accounting	103	(3)
2.2 Accounting for environmentally-related fmancial impacts	106	(8)
2.3 Ecological accounting: towards activity and product ecobalances	114	(9)
2.4 Eco-financial integration for assessing environmental management performance	123	(3)
3. The future of environmental accounting and the issue of contingent liabilities	126	(7)
3.1 Valuing environmental liabilities as part of a company's total value	126	(3)
3.2 Progress using shareholder and stakeholder value concepts	129	(1)
3.3 Strategic accounting and the bridge to finance and economics	130	(3)
4. Conclusions	133	(1)
Case studies: A comparative analysis of several corporate accounting strategies	134	(16)
5. Corporate environmental reporting	150	(49)
1. Introduction	151	(1)
2. Innovative pressures and resistance to change	151	(9)
2.1 Externalities as a source of demand for environmental reporting	152	(2)
2.2 The economic rationale of supplying environmental reports	154	(3)
2.3 Accountants as instrumental stakeholders in the demand and supply relationship	157	(2)
2.4 The appearance of new accountees and their influence on environmental reporting	159	(1)
3. The economics of disclosure	160	(5)
3.1 Value of information and costs of disclosure	160	(1)
3.2 Information entitlements and rights	161	(1)
3.3 Determinants of information disclosure	162	(1)
3.4 Optimal disclosure	163	(1)
3.5 Role of government authorities	164	(1)
3.6 Globalisation and disclosure	164	(1)
4. The economics of information quality	165	(3)
4.1 What is information quality?	165	(2)
4.2 Optimal, not maximum quality	167	(1)
5. Environmental reports as optimal compromise products	168	(8)
5.1 The use of environmental reports	168	(2)
5.2 Evaluating environmental reports	170	(6)
6. Towards a common accounting framework for corporate environmental reporting	176	(8)
7. Corporate benefits of auditing and certification	184	(2)
8. Conclusion: higher levels of optimal environmental disclosure'?	186	(2)
Case studies: Wirralie Gold Mine (Normandy) Ltd., and WMC Ltd. (Australia)	188	(11)
6. Environmental management and corporate finance	199	(50)
1. Environment in corporate finance: an introduction	200	(1)
2. Investment appraisal and project management: some first principles	201	(12)
3. The environmental aspects of investment projects	213	(16)
3.1 General considerations	213	(4)
3.2 The value drivers of environmental investments	217	(9)
3.3 Practical assessment of environmental aspects of investments	226	(3)
4. The environment, stock markets and financial activities	229	(11)
4.1 The environment and financial intermediaries	229	(1)
4.2 The environment and banking activities	229	(3)
4.3 The environment, financial investments and stock markets	232	(8)
5. Conclusion	240	(1)
Case studies: Triodos Bank (NL) and Barclays Bank (UK)	241	(8)
7. The management of environmental risks	249	(37)
1. Introduction	250	(2)
2. Environmental risks and insurance	252	(10)
2.1 Background	252	(1)
2.2 Conditions of insurability	253	(2)
2.3 Characteristics of environmental risks	255	(4)
2.4 Limitations of insurance as a means of managing environmental risks	259	(3)
3. Managing environmental risks: conventional insurance and alternative techniques	262	(15)
3.1 A range of instruments for managing environmental risk	262	(2)
3.2 Total or almost total risk retention	264	(3)
3.3 Captive insurance companies	267	(6)
3.4 Conventional insurance and its variants	273	(4)
4. Conclusions	277	(1)
Case studies: 'Renflex' and Swiss Re (Switzerland)	278	(8)
8. Environmental management systems: the ISO 14001 and EMAS international standards	286	(52)
1. Introduction	287	(1)
2. Emergence of the ISO 14000 and EMAS families of environmental management norms	288	(10)
3. The ISO 14001 EMS norms	298	(22)
3.1 Overview	298	(4)
3.2 Step 1: The firm's environmental policy	302	(5)
3.3 Step 2: Planning the environmental policy	307	(2)
3.4 Step 3: Implementation and operation	309	(3)
3.5 Step 4: Checking and corrective action	312	(1)
3.6 Step 5: Management review	313	(1)
3.7 The other features of the ISO 14001 standard	313	(2)
3.8 The EMAS standards	315	(5)
4. The certification of EMSs: ISO 14001 certification and EMAS registration	320	(6)
4.1 General considerations	320	(1)
4.2 The value and shortfalls of ISO 14001 and EMAS certification	320	(3)
4.3 ISO 14001 certification, and globalisation	323	(3)
5. Conclusions	326	(1)
Case study: ST Microelectronics (France - Italy)	327	(11)
9. Eco-marketing and the environmental quality of goods	338	(38)
1. Introduction	339	(2)
2. Signalling the quality of goods and services	341	(7)
2.1 The problem of the environmental quality of goods	341	(2)
2.2 Environmental labelling: economic principles	343	(5)
3. Environmental marketing techniques	348	(11)
3.1 Environmental advertising, self-declared environmental claims, and other environmental declarations	348	(3)
3.2 Third-party certified environmental labelling or ecolabelling (ISO Type I-labelling)	351	(4)
3.3 Organisation marketing and other indirect environmental marketing techniques	355	(4)
4. Life-Cycle Assessment (LCA) and its implications	359	(6)
4.1 From cradle to grave	359	(4)
4.2 Implications for the environmental aspects of operations management	363	(2)
5. Eco-marketing and the demand for environmental quality	365	(2)
5.1 General considerations	365	(1)
5.2 Investigating the demand for environmental quality	366	(1)
6. Conclusion	367	(1)
Case study : Volvo (Sweden)	368	(8)
10. Conclusions	376	(13)
1. What take-home message?	377	(4)
2. What new directions in environmental management?	381	(2)
3. What economic insights, and why?	383	(2)
4. Environmental management, or sustainable development?	385	(4)
Index	389