ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING PRACTICES IN PORTUGUESE LOCAL ENTITIES

Abstract

As a result of the public entities regard to public interest and their promoting role in environmental conservation, it is expected that those entities develop environmental accounting and management practices. The aim of this paper is to analyze environmental accounting practices developed by Portuguese local public entities. The results indicate that financial accounting (85.5%) and budgetary accounting (75.8%) are the two main areas of the accounting information system that take in account environmental issues, whereas in 9.7% of cases the cost accounting assumed a role regarding environmental information. The accounting treatment of environmental investments and expenditures and the disclosure of environmental information in annual reports are the main functions performed by the accounting information system about this matter. Among the main reasons to externally disclose environmental information, according to the organizations studied, the interest in showing environmental responsibility and promoting their public image are outstanding.