Contingency Perspectives on Environmental Accounting: An Exploratory Study of Local Government

Environmental accounting studies that adopt contingency perspectives are largely anecdotal, and very few of these studies focus on the public sector, such as local government. On the path towards sustainable community, local government plays a pivotal role in local environmental management and needs to be accountable for its environmental management and performance. Using the case study method, this paper explores how contingency factors have influenced the development of environmental accounting for recycling and waste management in local government of New South Wales, Australia. The study finds that the changing recycling and waste management environments and proactive environmental strategies provide strong incentives for environmental managers to identify full environmental accounting information. Also, the managers' decisions on whether to use environmental accounting information depend on the complexity of waste and recycling management operations and designs.