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Improving environmental management accounting: how to use statistics to better determine energy consumption

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Abstract

The accounting literature voices increased concerns about sustainability issues. Environmental performance as one dimension of sustainability includes among others the management and control of energy. Energy is a key production factor to which the stakeholders of a firm pay increased attention. Since energy has a significant influence on the economic costs and the environmental footprint of firms, management accounting is under growing pressure to better monitor and control energy costs. As a consequence, management accounting needs to develop energy management systems which control energy consumption and aim to reduce energy costs which in turn diminish a firm’s environmental impact and thus improve corporate reputation. One of the most important elements for energy management systems is an effective and cost-efficient measure of the energy consumption. However, firms and their management accounting departments, respectively, are still struggling to develop any cost-efficient approach for measuring energy consumption. That is why we suggest a statistical approach to easily and cost-efficiently measure energy utilization which in turn provides information input to improve environmental management accounting (e.g., cost allocations). We demonstrate our approach for a firm from an energy-intensive industry. The approach allows to distinguish more efficient from less efficient production units. We derive implications from this measurement approach for environmental management accounting and environmental management control systems.

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Notes

  1. A load profile is a chart illustrating the variation in demand/electrical load over a specific time. An electrical load is an electrical component or portion of a circuit that consumes electric power.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kiel University of Applied Sciences, Sokratesplatz 2, 24149, Kiel, Germany

    Björn Christensen

  2. Kühne Logistics University, Großer Grasbrook 17, 20457, Hamburg, Germany

    Alexander Himme

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  1. Björn Christensen
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  2. Alexander Himme
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Correspondence to Alexander Himme.

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Christensen, B., Himme, A. Improving environmental management accounting: how to use statistics to better determine energy consumption. J Manag Control 28, 227–243 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-016-0239-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-016-0239-0

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