Success Factors in Developing EMA—Experiences from Four Follow-Up Case Studies in Finland

Abstract

Pressure to include environmental issues in corporate decision-making is increasing. Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) is a tool-kit for monitoring environmental loads and costs caused by a company’s processes and thus it is essential for effective environmental management. This paper aims to identify the success and failure factors in EMA development, on the basis of four longitudinal case studies conducted in large Finnish companies in the period 1996–2005. In the mid-1990s, pilot EMA systems were designed and implemented in these companies, and in 2005, the current state of their EMA practices was recorded by interviewing corporate representatives and studying corporate reports. This followup study showed that only one of the companies had voluntarily and successfully continued developing its pilot EMA system, whereas the others had abandoned their systems as not being value-adding. The motives behind this outcome are important to clarify in order to ensure that further EMA research and development focuses on essential questions.