through questionnaire survey and field investigation in some industrial parks, high-tech parks and economic development zones in Quzhou City, this paper makes an empirical study on environmental awareness, environmental management and concept, recurrent environmental expenditure, environmental income and environmental information disclosure of enterprises, finds out the present situation and problems of small and medium-sized environmental cost management, and puts forward countermeasures and suggestions for small and medium-sized enterprises to strengthen environmental cost management.
In recent years, environmental protection has attracted great attention from the whole society, and the voice for enterprises to reduce environmental pollution and establish and implement environmental cost management system is getting louder and louder. At present, there are many problems in the further development of small and medium-sized enterprises, such as over-emphasis on profit maximization, weak environmental awareness and social responsibility, extensive production, management and operation, and the overall level of environmental cost management is still at a very low level. These problems have become one of the outstanding problems that restrict the transformation and upgrading of small and medium-sized enterprises, and also one of the serious constraints for Quzhou to develop circular economy and build a resource-saving society and a harmonious society.
I. Proposing the issue of environmental cost management
(I) Concept of environmental cost
At present, the definition of environmental cost has formed a * * * understanding. The 15th meeting document of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Accounting and Reporting Standards, "The Position of Environmental Accounting and Reporting", puts forward: "Environmental cost refers to the cost of measures required to manage the impact of enterprise activities on the environment in line with the principle of being responsible for the environment, as well as the cost caused by enterprises. This definition focuses on clarifying the environmental responsibility of enterprises, including the impact of enterprise activities on the environment, the load cost and the expenditure of preventive measures, and puts forward that the goal of environmental cost is to manage the impact of enterprise activities on the environment and meet the requirements of implementing environmental objectives.
(II) Raising the issue of environmental cost management
1. Requirements of environmental laws and regulations. The international declaration on environmental protection, ISO14 series international standards on environmental management and laws and regulations of all countries in the world have been issued one after another, requiring enterprises to implement environmental cost management. China has also promulgated a series of environmental protection laws and regulations, including the Law of the People's Republic of China on Environmental Protection, and violations of these laws and regulations will be investigated, which forces enterprises to take necessary measures according to their requirements and strive to make their production and business activities meet the requirements of the laws and regulations.
2. adapt to the needs of market economy. At present, consumers are increasingly fond of green products, and there are "green trade barriers" in international trade. Some countries have banned goods without environmental (green) labels from entering the market, and China officially started the certification of environmental labels for products in 1992, which will eventually exclude products harmful to the environment from the market. At the same time, China's financing mechanism has also begun to pay attention to the environmental image. The People's Bank of China has stipulated that banks at all levels must cooperate with the environmental protection department when issuing loans, and will not grant loans to projects that have not been approved by the environmental department. Therefore, in order to break these "green barriers", enterprises must implement the control and management of environmental costs.
3. Focus on the control of environmental risks. Environmental problems increase the cost of enterprises, thus increasing the environmental risks of enterprises. It is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
(1) A large number of preventive laws and regulations have increased, leading to an increase in enterprise costs.
(2) restricting and prohibiting the use of some raw materials that seriously pollute the environment will directly affect the production cost of enterprises.
(3) The scope of environmental responsibility of enterprises will be expanded by the state, and the investigation of environmental responsibility of enterprises will no longer stop at the waste discharge in the production and operation of enterprises, but be extended to the environmental pollution in the process of product use (such as automobile exhaust emission) and recycling after use. Therefore, the implementation of environmental cost management is also the requirement of sustainable management of enterprises. It can be seen that in order to improve profits and enhance market competitiveness, enterprises are bound to try to reduce environmental costs, which urges enterprises to implement and strengthen the management of environmental costs.
Second, the present situation and problems of small and medium-sized environmental cost management
Taking Quzhou as a sample, through questionnaire survey and field investigation of some industrial parks, high-tech parks and economic development zones in three counties, two districts and one city in Quzhou, the paper makes an empirical study on the environmental awareness, environmental management and environmental concept, recurrent environmental expenditure, environmental income and environmental information disclosure of enterprises, and finds out the present situation and problems of small and medium-sized environmental cost management.
(1) Survey design and survey results
We designed a questionnaire about environmental cost management. The questionnaire is divided into four parts, covering 12 aspects:
1. Basic information and environmental awareness of the enterprise (questions 1-3): including the industry, nature, scale of operation, time of establishment and whether it has obtained ISO141 qualification certification, customers of accounting firms, understanding of ISO141 certification system and whether the enterprise has a special environmental protection department.
2. environmental management and environmental concept (questions 1-3): including the meaning and questions about sustainable development, views on government environmental protection measures, etc.
3. Environmental expenditure and environmental income items (Question 4-5): Including environmental expenditure items and environmental income items and the impact of environmental problems on enterprises.
this questionnaire survey was conducted by letter, and 2 questionnaires were sent out, including 12 from enterprises, and the respondents were financial managers of enterprises; 25 banks, and the respondents are the credit department managers of banks; 25 securities companies and investment funds, and the respondents are investment department managers; 3 accounting firms, and the respondents are certified public accountants. By the end of February 29, * * * had collected 41 questionnaires, including 28 from enterprises, 5 from banks, 5 from securities companies and investment funds, and 3 from accounting firms.
(II) Results and analysis of the questionnaire
1. Basic information of the enterprise. Among the 28 enterprises that answered the paper, according to the industry, there are 5 chemical enterprises, 5 manufacturing enterprises, 3 pharmaceutical enterprises, 3 paper-making enterprises, 5 electrical and electronic enterprises and 7 enterprises in other industries. According to the nature of enterprises, there are 25 private enterprises, 1 wholly foreign-owned enterprise and 2 joint ventures. Judging from the enterprise's answer sheet, the enterprise's reply rate is 2%, and it is generally believed that the effective reply rate should be above 2%. Therefore, these answers are helpful to understand the current situation in environmental cost management.
2. Environmental management and environmental concept. Judging from the comprehensive situation of the answers, 43% of the enterprises have passed the ISO141 environmental management system certification, and 68% of the enterprises that have not passed the ISO141 environmental management system certification have indicated that they plan to apply for the ISO141 environmental management system certification in the next three years. Judging from the accounting firm's answer sheet, 25% of its clients have passed the ISO141 environmental management system certification. Regarding the issue of sustainable development, the results of this questionnaire survey show that 25% of people think that sustainable development means expanding production capacity as much as possible, 2% think that sustainable development means controlling environmental pollution, 11% think that sustainable development means controlling population growth, 5% think that the core content of sustainable development is environmental protection, and 9% think that sustainable development means other contents.
3. Environmental expenditure and environmental income. According to the investigation results of "environmental expenditure" and "environmental income" items and their accounting treatment, the four items of expenditure: sewage charges (89%), environmental protection expenditure for renovation and replacement of existing equipment according to current laws and regulations (93%), environmental protection facilities expenditure for new investment projects (89%) and temporary or sudden environmental protection expenditure (75%) are the most common "environmental expenditures" of enterprises. Most enterprises keep separate accounts for sewage charges, but the proportion of enterprises keeping separate accounts for other environmental expenditure items does not exceed 5%. From the causes of "environmental cost", the enterprise's "environmental expenditure" project is greatly influenced by environmental laws and regulations, and the capital environmental expenditure is greater than the profitable environmental expenditure.
the comprehensive results of questions 1 and 3 show that most enterprises are sensitive to environmental problems. In the past three years, most enterprises have mainly incurred environmental expenditures in compliance with environmental laws and regulations and capital expenditures; The expected environmental expenditure in the next three years is mainly in compliance with environmental laws and regulations. This shows that the environmental expenditure of Chinese enterprises is greatly influenced by environmental laws and regulations. It can be predicted that with the continuous strengthening of China's environmental legislation and the continuous improvement of the environmental protection laws and regulations system, the cost for enterprises to comply with environmental laws and regulations will increase day by day. The financial impact of environmental expenditure is long-term. Income: The income from the production of products by enterprises using "three wastes" (74%), the tax reduction and exemption income from the production of products by enterprises using "three wastes" (59%), the bonus paid by the state to enterprises with remarkable achievements in environmental protection (51%) and the special funds allocated by the state to enterprises for environmental governance (57%) are common "environmental income" items for enterprises, but these "environmental income"
4. Environmental information disclosure.
(1) the reasons for the disclosure of enterprise environmental information. Comprehensive results of the survey: Due to the following reasons and the percentage of the survey population, the government management agencies are forced (74%), pressured by the market (4%), pressured by the public or environmental protection organizations (25%), pressured by investors (21%) and set up a good environmental public image (49%). The above shows that the main reasons for enterprises to prepare environmental reports are the mandatory requirements of government management agencies and the establishment of a good environmental public image. This shows that the environmental information disclosure of small and medium-sized enterprises in Quzhou City is compulsory and voluntary, and most of them are compulsory. According to the relevant laws and regulations of our government, enterprises should regularly provide local environmental protection departments at all levels with environmental statistical reports on the discharge, treatment and utilization of "three wastes" and the monitoring and treatment of pollutants.
(2) users of environmental information. Statistics show that: among the users of corporate environmental information, government management agencies are the most important users of corporate environmental reports in China (55%), followed by investors (32%), customers, financial institutions, news media, employees, financial analysts and the public. This shows that the environmental report of small and medium-sized enterprises in Quzhou City mainly serves the national macro-environmental management and pollution control. In this case, the enterprise environmental report ignores the information needs of other users, and the environmental information it provides is also incomplete.
(3) information disclosure and investment decision. The comprehensive results of the survey in question 4 show that most respondents believe that environmental planning will have a favorable impact on the company's financial situation in the next five years; At the same time, some respondents believe that environmental planning will have an adverse impact on the company's financial situation in the next five years. It can be seen that people's understanding of the role and importance of environmental planning is still inconsistent.
5. Environmental liabilities. The comprehensive results of questions 6, 7 and 9 show that most of the respondents believe that enterprises generally underestimate the possible environmental liabilities, and believe that new environmental laws and regulations may make enterprises generate potential environmental liabilities. This shows that with the improvement of environmental laws and regulations, the potential environmental problems of enterprises will probably lead to the increase of environmental liabilities, which will adversely affect the financial situation of enterprises. If enterprises do not fully disclose the possible environmental liabilities, the decision-making of information users will be seriously affected, and may even lead to wrong decisions.
6. Investigation conclusion of small and medium-sized environmental cost management in Quzhou City. Based on the results and analysis of this survey, the author can draw the following conclusions: First, the relevant laws and regulations are not sound enough, and the environmental regulations and national environmental policies have a significant and long-term impact on the financial affairs of enterprises; Second, local protectionism still exists and the distribution of environmental costs is unreasonable; Third, the regulations on environmental cost accounting are not perfect and lack of operability; Fourth, the concept of environmental cost management is outdated, and the scope and means of management can't meet the needs. Due to the lack of unified regulatory requirements, the proportion of single and independent accounts is low, and enterprises underestimate environmental liabilities; Fifth, the comparability, relevance and clarity of environmental cost information disclosure are not enough, and there is a situation of compulsory and voluntary information disclosure.
III. Countermeasures to improve small and medium-sized environmental cost management
Strengthening the environmental cost control of small and medium-sized enterprises is a complex systematic project. The government and enterprises must adhere to the win-win principle, that is, they cannot pursue economic benefits at the expense of the environment, nor can they abandon the economic development of enterprises in order to protect the environment. Therefore, in order to coordinate economic, social development and environmental protection, strengthen the accounting and control of environmental costs, create new ideas and methods of environmental cost control, and build its system model, which will contribute to the establishment of a circular society and the implementation of sustainable strategies. Based on this, this paper puts forward the ideas and methods of reducing environmental costs, improving economic benefits and constructing environmental cost control of enterprises from both the government and the enterprises themselves.
(1) Countermeasures that the government should take
1. Improve the corresponding environmental cost accounting and management standard system. First, the relevant government departments should determine the accounting and management requirements of enterprise environmental costs in the form of laws, regulations and guidelines, so that enterprise cost accounting and management can be based on laws and rules. Laws and regulations related to environmental cost accounting and control include some laws and regulations on environment, finance and securities. Second, it is necessary to establish and improve the economic system of environmental cost control, including the system of paid use of resources, the system of sewage charges, the system of permit trading, the system of ecological compensation, the system of environmental taxation, and the system of green GDP accounting. Third, we should strengthen the research on environmental cost accounting and management theory. Fourth, strengthen the assessment of environmental cost control.
2. Set up a supervision organization for the use of environmental funds to review and monitor the use of environmental funds. In recent years, provincial and municipal governments have increased their support for key environmental improvement and protection projects, and many small and medium-sized enterprises have also set up certain special funds for environmental protection. Therefore, the government's environmental fund management agencies and enterprise financial departments are required to strictly manage environmental funds and use them for special purposes to improve the efficiency of environmental funds. Government departments should set up special supervision institutions to strengthen the supervision and management of the use of environmental funds and the operation of environmental protection equipment.
3. Strengthen the development, popularization and application of environmental protection and energy-saving technologies and develop circular economy. In accordance with the requirements of developing circular economy and building a conservation-oriented society, we will strengthen the development and popularization of environmental protection and energy-saving technologies, guide enterprises to take the road of intensive development, improve the utilization rate of resources and the recycling of waste raw materials, and promote clean production, environmental protection production and circular production.
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