Environmental accounting and reporting a comprehensive review of general framework and application to Vietnam

would fail. Environmental accounting should be dealt with as an integrated part of a broader corporate accounting system in which conventional accounting is also a separate part. Taking in to account those strengths and weaknesses of previous approaches, and adopted approaches proposed by Bartolomeo et al. (2000), Burritt at el. (2004) suggested an integrative framework for environmental accounting at firm level to incorporate environmental information in company accounting/reporting system. 345 Fig. 6. Comprehensive Framework of Environmental Accounting Source: Burritt at el. (2004) In this comprehensive framework, two types of environmental impacts and their measurement are reflected independently. • Environmentally induced impacts on company’s economic situation are recorded through monetary environmental accounting systems, using monetary measures such as cost of site restoration, environmental fees in compliance with laws, value of environmental assets and liabilities. Monetary environmental accounting is considered as the broaden in the contents of conventional accounting as they are based on existing methods of conventional accounting. • Company’s impacts on environment are reported through physical environmental accounting systems, using physical measures, for example, amounts of material or energy measured in physical units like tons, cubic meters. And this is an addition to conventional accounting. This framework of environmental accounting inherits advantages of early models because it makes clear distinction between two types of environmentally related impacts – the central concern of any environmental reporting system. As these two types of information – physical and monetary environmental information – are developed from different data sources, measured in different metric units and serve different purposes of various stakeholders. Within this framework it is also possible to make further division into sub-systems by adding other dimensions (such as time frame, user focus, etc.) to address detailed information needs of different groups of users without breaching the balance and completeness of the whole system. 5. Conclusion Though Vietnamese government has taken initial steps to promote its application to business, current practice of environmental accounting in companies is still weak. Efforts 346 made by the government and professionals are just enough to raise awareness among academics and practitioners of the importance and implications of environmental accounting practice at corporate level and are not sufficient to make it realized. Despite the desire by various stakeholders, management are still lingering in implementing environmental accounting in their businesses. Obviously, it is challenging to push a new concept into practice without practical guidance. This fact calls for the need for thorough fundamental studies that can help developing a comprehensive framework of environmental accounting that is applicable at corporate level. 6. References Bartolomeo, M., Bennett, M., Bouma, J., Heydkamp, J., James, P. & Wolters, T. (2000), ‘Environmental management accounting in Europe: current practice and future potential’, The European Accounting Review, 9(1), 31-52. Beams, F.A. and Fertig, P.E. (1971), ‘Pollution control through social costs conversion’, Journal of Accountancy, 141, 37-42. Bennett, M. & James, P. (1998), The Green Bottom Line: Environmental Accounting for Management, Sheffield, Greenleaf Publishing. Bennett, M. & James, P. (2017), ‘The Green Bottom Line’ in The Green Bottom Line: Environmental Accounting for Management-Current Practice and Future Trends, Bennett, M. & James, P. (eds), Routledge, New York, USA. Burritt, R., Hahn, T. & Schaltegger, S. (2004), ‘An Integrative Framework of Environmental Management Accounting–Consolidating the Different Approaches of EMA into a Common Framework and Terminology’, in Environmental management accounting: informational and institutional developments, Bennett, M., Bouma, J. & Wolters, T. (eds), Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht. Burritt, R., Hahn, T. & Schaltegger, S. (2002), ‘Towards A Comprehensive Framework for Environmental Management Accounting – Links Between Business Actors and Environmental Management Accounting Tools’, Australian Accounting Review, 12(2), 39-50. Churchman, C.W. (1971), ‘On the facility, felicity, and morality of measuring social change’, Accounting Review, 46 (1), 30-35. Dilley, S.C. & Weygandt, J.J. (1973), ‘Measuring social responsibility: an empirical test’, Journal of Accountancy, 143, 62-70. Doan, A. P. N & Tran, B. T. T. (2017), ‘Reality and Factors Affecting the Disclosure of Social Responsibility Information of Listed Enterprises in Vietnam Securities Market’. Proceedings: Research and Training Accounting and Auditing of Vietnamese Universities according to international standards, National Economics University Publisher, Vietnam. Environmental Protection Agency. (1995), An Introduction to Environmental Accounting: Key Concepts and Terms, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 347 Estes, R.W. (1973), “Accounting for social costs”, in Accounting and Society, Estes, R.W. (ed.), Melville, Los Angeles, USA. Government. (2015), Decree No. 19/2015/ND-CP detailing a number of articles of the Law on Environmental Protection, on April 1, 2015, Hanoi, Vietnam. Gray, R. (1992), ‘Accounting and Environmentalism: An Exploration of The Challenge of Gently Accounting for Accountability, Transparency and Sustainability’, Accounting, Organization and Society, 17(5), 399-425. Gray, R. (1993), ‘Current Practice in Environmental Reporting’, Social and Environmental Accounting, 13(1), 6-9. Gray, R., Bebbington, J., Walters, D. (1993), Accounting for The Environment, 1st edition, Paul Chapman Publishing Ltd, London. Gray, R., Bebbington, J. (2001), Accounting for The Environment, 2nd edition, SAGE Publications Ltd. Hecht, J. E. (2007), ‘National Environmental Accounting: A Practical Introduction’, International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, 1, 3-66. Herzig, C., Viere, T., Schaltegger, S. & Burritt, R. (2012), Environmental Management Accounting: Case Studies of South-East Asian Companies, Routledge, New York, USA. International Federation of Accountants (IFAC). (1998), Environmental Management in Organizations: The Role of Management Accounting, Financial and Management Accounting Committee, IFAC, New York, USA. Linowes, D.F. (1972), ‘Socio-economic accounting’, Journal of Accountancy, 133, 37-42. Mathews, M. R. (1997), ‘Twenty-five years of social and environmental accounting research: Is there a silver jubilee to celebrate?’, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 10(4), 481-531. Mathews, M. R. (2000), The Development of Social and Environmental Accounting Research 1995-2000, Working and Discussion Paper, retrieved on August 16th, 2018, from . Maunders, K. & Burritt, R. (1991), ‘Accounting and Ecological Crisis’, Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 4(3), 9-26. Ministry of Finance. (2015), Circular No.155/2015/TT-BTC on Guidelines for Information Disclosure on Securities Market, on October 6, 2015, Hanoi, Vietnam. Ministry of the Environment. (2005), Environmental Accounting Guidelines, Ministry of the Environment, Japan. Mobley, S.C. (1970), ‘The challenges of socio-economic accounting’, The Accounting Review, 45 (4), 762-768. 348 National Assembly. (2014), Law No. 55/2014/QH13 on Environmental Protection, on June 23, 2014, Hanoi, Vietnam. Nguyen, L.S, Tran, D. M., Nguyen, H. T. X & Le, H. Q. (2017), ‘Factors Affecting Disclosure Levels of Environmental Accounting Information: The Case of Vietnam’, Accounting and Finance Research, 6(4), 255-264. Nguyen, L. H., Nguyen, T. H., Nguyen, T. H. & Pham, P. L. (2017), Determining Environmental costs in Vietnamese Enterprises-Case Study of Viglacera Halong Joint Stock Company, South East Asia Journal of Contemporary Business, Economics and Law, 13(3). Pigou, R. C. (1920), The Economics of Welfare, Macmillan and Co., Limited, London, UK. Schaltegger, S. & Burritt, R. (2000), Contemporary Environmental Accounting: Issues, Concepts and Practice, Greenleaf Publishing, Sheffield, UK. Schaltegger, S., Müller, K. & Hindrichsen, H. (1996), Corporate Environmental Accounting, Chichester: Wiley Ullmann, A. (1976), ‘The corporate environmental accounting system: A management tool for fighting environmental degradation’, Accounting, Organizations and Society, 1(1), 71-79. United Nations. (1993), Handbook of National Accounting: Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting, United Nations Division for Sustainable Development, United Nations.