Determining, accounting and reporting of the environmental costs in businesses: A sample application in the dairy industry

Businesses, today, along with the increasing in environmental problems, have started to give more importance to their sustainability in order to maintain their existence. Businesses, which regard this sustainability as serious issues as a part of their social accountability, have begun to take some precautions to protect the environment. The expense of what is done for the sake of the environment has formed the concept of ?environmental cost?, and has required forming and applying the environmental accounting system by diverging from traditional accounting so as to take account of environmental costs.Environmental accounting, as the concepts of ?sustainable progress? and ?social accountability?, is the process of accounting environmental costs and presenting them in financial tables. This study aims to determine environmental cost of a dairy product business, to account its environmental costs, and to present them in financial tables.