Application of Environmental Accounting in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs).

Written by:Diomer Antonio Galán Rincón.

Bachelor's Degree.Public Accounting / MSc.Science of Higher Education.

The conservation of the environment has become a necessity and obligation for all individuals and organizations, both natural and legal persons (companies), in the end environmental damage affects everyone, in all countries. In this sense, the different organisms at world and national level, with the publication of regulations, have tried to establish actions for the maintenance of a less polluted environment.

In this order, the professionals of the different branches must assume measures to help minimize occupational hazards. Public accountants can collaborate in this, influencing managers to apply environmental accounting, which aims to bring into the accounting system, the aspects or actions of the company that positively or negatively affect the environment, to motivate measures to improve the environment.

The development of economies has brought with it extraction practices and production processes with consequences for the environment, affecting the conservation of non-renewable resources and thus compromising the future of humanity, both for developed and developing countries.

In this context, countries have adopted strategies to minimize the negative effects of the production process on the environment. In this regard, Barkin (1998) points out that "sustainable development is not an entirely new concept. In the history of mankind, numerous cultures and civilizations have recognized the need to establish harmonious lifestyles and relationships between society, the economy and nature.

This responsibility for their actions includes maintaining the environment, making their activities sustainable and sustainable, as well as biodiversity, species extinction, deforestation, habitat fragmentation, dispersion of toxic substances, overexploitation of species, global climate change, so that production processes are environmentally friendly.

In view of these circumstances, a problem arises as to how to reflect the investments and expenses incurred in the maintenance and conservation of the environment in the company's accounting, which is where the concept of environmental accounting arises, whose main drawback, according to Jasch (2002), "is that it lacks a standard definition of environmental cost. Depending on various interests, they include a variety of costs, disposal or investment costs and, sometimes, also external costs, for example costs incurred outside the company, mostly to the general public".

All these efforts have had their positive results, if by this we understand that terms such as environmental accounting, environmental assets, which according to Mejías (2010) are the "elements incorporated to the entity's patrimony with the purpose of being used in a lasting way in its activity, whose main purpose is the minimization of the environmental impact and the protection and improvement of the environment" are recognized. From this perspective, managers have tools to recognize costs and expenses related to environmental maintenance in company accounting.

I hope you like my article and I would appreciate all your comments.

1.- Barkin, D. (1998) Wealth, poverty and sustainable development, Mexico: Editorial Jus and Centro de Ecología y Desarrollo..

2- Cartolima (2017) Activos ambientales. Corporación Autónoma Regional de Tolima. Consultado el 01-09-2017. Disponible: www.cortolima.gov.co/.

3- Jasch, Ch. (2002) Environmental management accounting principles and procedures.