Abstract:
The study was conducted to determine the application of environmental management accounting practices for sustainable development in Anambra state. Six research questions guided the study. Six null hypotheses formulated for the study were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study employed survey research design. The population for the study was 214 comprising 107 practicing accountants and 107 managers of manufacturing firms. No sampling was done since the population is of manageable size. A 78-item questionnaire titled Application of Environmental Management Accounting Practices for Sustainable Development Questionnaire (AEMAPSDQ) developed by the researcher was used as the instrument for data collection for the study. The questionnaire was face-validated by three experts, from the Department of Business Education in the faculty of Vocational and Technical Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The comments and suggestions made by the experts were used to enhance the validity of the instrument. The reliability of the instrument was established by administering 40 copies of the questionnaire to 20 practicing accountants and 20 managers of manufacturing firms in Enugu state who were not part of study. Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used for establishing the internal consistency of the instrument. The overall reliability of the instrument was 0.86, indicating that it was reliable. The reliability coefficient for clusters of the sub-scales were 0.77 for environmental impact detection practices, 0.78 for environmental impact management and prevention practices, 0.82 waste and emission treatment practices, 0.86 EMA cost accounting techniques employed, 0.89 for challenges for effective and efficient application of EMA practices, and 0.86 for strategies for improving the application of environmental management accounting practices in manufacturing firms for sustainable development. The data for the study were collected by the researcher with the help of three research assistants. The collected data were analyzed using mean (X) and standard deviation (SD) to answer the researcher questions, while t-test and ANOVA statistic were used for testing the six hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Generally the study found that manufacturing firms are applying environmental impact detection practices, environmental management and prevention practices and waste and emission treatment practices to a great extent. The study also found that manufacturing firms are facing challenges in applying the environmental management accounting practices; also the strategies for improving the application of environmental management accounting practices were identified. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that manufacturing firms should have environmental policy in place and establish environmental departments in charge of environmental issues in the firms.
