Turning waste into gold with new ISO standard for environmental management accounting

摘要

How to increase productivity while reducing environmental impact? A new ISO standard does just that, by helping business cut costs linked to waste and emissions and enhancing their environmental performance.rnThe standard, ISO 14051:2011, Environmental management - Material flow cost accounting - General framework, assists organisations to better understand the environmental and financial consequences of their material and energy use practices, so that they can identify opportunities for improvement. ISO 14051:2011 establishes a management information system approach called Material Flow Cost Accounting (MFCA), which can be used to trace and quantify material input and output flows and stocks within an organisation. The system helps identify material and energy use practices, and understand these in costs and physical terms. The information can then be applied to reduce losses and increase gains.