Sustainability cost accounting, Part 1: A Monetary procedure to evaluate the 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.