By focusing on environmental management accounting in SMEs, the study helps SME managers to effectively understand and find better ways of improving environmental management. The paper investigates environmental management accounting applications in manufacturing small and medium enterprises in Gauteng province. Small and medium enterprises were chosen based on their exclusion from the mainstream research on environmental management accounting (EMA). To achieve the main aim of the study, 24 in-depth interviews were undertaken among SMEs’ managers, accountants, chief executive officers, and owners. The study found that physical EMA is more common in SMEs than monetary EMA. 77% of SMEs’ respondents confirm using physical environmental information in their operations. Therefore, SMEs prefer EMA practices with little cost or no cost attached and practices that can effectively generate returns in the short term. In addition, the avoidance of monetary EMA is anchored on the premise of avoiding costly projects with no immediate material financial returns. Therefore, EMA is critical for SMEs to achieve sustainability.

The aim of the study is to identify environmental management accounting (EMA) practices currently used by the municipalities in South Africa in enhancing municipal solid waste management. To accomplish the aim of the study, 32 in-depth interviews were conducted with accountants, environmental managers and municipals managers on 10 municipalities in South Africa. Thematic analysis’s was used to analyse the data and unearthed that environmental management system, waste management system, environmental reporting, environmental training and research and development are currently used as EMA practices to boost municipal solid waste management. To align these practices with the accounting system in municipalities, an EMA model was proposed that can make available monetary and non-monetary waste-related environmental information.

By examining environmental management accounting practices (EMAP) in South African companies, the study assists the company management to better understand their EMAP more broadly and establish effective EMAP to improve environmental management. This paper explores EMAP adopted by South African companies in Gauteng province and understands the motivation for applying the EMAP. Companies from different industrial sectors were used as the study sample. To accomplish the major aim of the study, 202 questionnaires were received as valid from the environmental managers, accountants and production managers. The study establishes that the companies are mostly using environmental management system, environmental reporting, waste management and water conservation activities as the key EMAP. This indicates that South African companies opt for EMAP with little cost involved and EMAP that does not require advanced systems in place. Also, financial gains were identified as the major motivation of EMAP adoption. This is followed by stakeholder pressure, marketing pressure and regulatory pressure. This paper will amplify literature on the EMAP adopted within industrial sectors and the motivation of adopting EMAP from an emerging market standpoint.

The main purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between environmental management accounting practices (EMAP) and financial performance of South African cement and mining companies. To attain the major objective of the research, three hypotheses were tested based on data from 45 JSE-listed cement and mining companies from 2010 to 2021. Multiple regression analysis with the assistance of IBM SPSS Statistics 24was also used to test the hypotheses. The study found that two accounting measures namely return on assets and net profit margin had no significant relationship with EMAP. However, the study also revealed that one accounting based measure namely return on equity had a positive and significant relationship with EMAP. This signifies that EMA is still at its primary stages in South Africa. In addition, the results also suggest that EMA is important to accomplish sustainability. The results provide managers with empirical evidence of EMAP that increases financial sustainability in the context of an emerging economy such as South Africa.