The Environmental Management Accounting Control as a Practice

As environmental challenges are growing, environmental engagement is becoming inevitable. The engagement itself takes many forms, e.g. environmental reporting, accounting innovations, and implementation of certain environmental management systems. As environmental engagements in accounting literature have existed since the 1970s, the knowledge that helps the undertaking of such environmental engagements is developing significantly. However, the deep process of engagements and the sense-making of these engagements still remain understudied. Moreover, most of the environmental engagements in practice are not substantial and losing their authenticity. As substantial engagement depends on the actor and the relevant structure, this research aims to define substantial environmental engagement in the context of management accounting. Therefore, this study focuses on the research in environmental management accounting control (EMAC) as a practice informed by the practice theory and site ontology from Schatzki. This thesis research investigates two case studies: the plantation company (CP plantation) and the agrochemical company (CM manufacture). The study focuses on the key actors: the department or division managers, factory plant managers, and relevant section heads. The important findings are that EMAC practice is an integrated practice governed by the understandings that combine the management accounting control and environmental management knowledge, the rules, and teleoaffectivity. The substantial environmental engagement is not merely about the EMAC structures, it also lies upon the embeddedness of environmental value into daily doings and sayings of the key actors. The embeddedness of environmental value supports the key actors in normativising them in prioritising the hierarchical order of environmental and business ends. This thesis provides a contribution to the existing literature in the environmental management accounting arena by providing empirical evidence to the prominent embedded environmental value in key actors’ doings and sayings in the EMAC framework. By drawing upon Schatzki’s practice theory and site ontology, this thesis provides theoretical contributions through unpacking the fundamental sense-making process of these key actors’ doings and sayings. Keywords: practice, environmental management accounting control, substantial engagement, embeddedness, doings and sayings