The role of environmental accountant is a new field in the accounting industry that is designed to incorporate both economic and corporate data. In this role, you will focus on helping a business or organization identify the proper use of resources, measure the impact a company's business is having on the environment and estimate the costs involved of minimizing this impact. These costs could include such things as cleaning up the environment, purchasing technology for reducing the amount of pollution, and paying any environmental fines or taxes.
There are several reasons why a company would hire an environmental accountant. The company may have significant costs arising out of its attempts to reduce or eliminate pollution and needs to have a specialist on staff to help minimize these costs. It is quite possible that many of the costs were included in the overhead and not documented as such and the business wants this to be a separate part of the budget. The company may also want to become environmentally friendly in its practices and so needs the help of such an accountant to help identify the areas and the costs associated with becoming involved in environmental projects.
The main role of an environmental accountant is to make the environmental costs of the company more apparent in the financial reports and statements. In so doing, the company can have better control over the expenses involved in responding to the needs of the environment. Most companies are now involved in projects that preserve the country’s natural resources and through the work of their own accountant they can have greater knowledge of the actual costs that they are incurring. The accountant will prepare financial statements related to the expenditure on environmental projects or costs associated with cleaning up identified sites. He/She is not responsible for the financial statements for other areas of the business.
The United Nations Environmental Management Accounting Principles and Principles checklist is a great asset for an environmental accountant to use in assessing how well the business or organization meets the needs of the environment. Both federal and state governments as well as cities hire people in this position to handle the costs associated with waste management, which is an important aspect of national, state and municipal management.
In order to become an environmental accountant, you should hold at least a Bachelor’s degree in accounting, business or a related field. Many of the people who already work in this field of accounting hold a Master’s degree. Along with taking courses in accounting and economics, it would be beneficial for you to have course work in geography. You need to have knowledge of waste management practices as well as negotiating skills for dealing with contractors. Certification in management accounting would also be beneficial to help you estimate costs of projects and to develop a budget for your department. Strong interpersonal and communication skills are essential to aid in your dealings with coworkers, government officials and contractors. You will be called upon to give presentations to investors, shareholders and community leaders, which means you need excellent written and oral skills.
