Sustainability cost accounting - Part 1 : a monetary procedure to evaluate sustainability of technologies in the South African process industry

Abstract

The development and management of new technologies is fundamental to the manufacturing sector as a core operational initiative. Managers of a new technology are increasingly pressurised to consider the economic, environmental, and social impacts associated with the life cycle of the technology (and product) during decision-making – i.e. the overall sustainability of the technology. At present, there is no consensus on a methodology to incorporate externalities – for example, environmental and social impacts at macro-level, for which a company is (typically) not held financially liable – into management practices. This paper introduces the Sustainability Cost Accounting (SCA) procedure, whereby externalities (burdens and benefits) are translated into financial terms to assess the overall sustainability performance of a developed technology in the process industry.

‘n Sentrale operasionele initiatief van die vervaardigings-industrie is die ontwikkeling en bestuur van nuwe tegnologieë. Bestuurders van nuwe tegnologieë word toenemend onder druk geplaas om die ekonomiese-, omgewings-, en sosiale impakte, wat verwant is aan die lewenssiklus van ‘n tegnologie (of produk), in ag te neem tydens besluitneming ten opsigte van die globale volhoudbaarheid van die tegnologie. Op hierdie stadium is daar geen konsensus oor die metodologie wat gevolg moet word om eksterne faktore – bv. omgewings- en sosiale impakte op makrovlak, waarvoor ‘n maatskappy tipies nie aanspreeklik gehou word nie – te inkorporeer in die bestuurpraktyk. Hierdie artikel stel die Volhoudbaarheid Kosterekeningkunde (VKR) prosedure voor, waarvolgens die oorgrote volhoudbare prestasie, in terme van eksterne voor- en nadele van ‘n ontwikkelde tegnologie, in die prosesindustrie ge-assesseer kan word in finansiële terme.