Imagine yourself talking with the president of a company when someone bursts
into the room and announces that there has been an oil spill.
You rush out to the spill with the president to evaluate the situation.
The president says that you will decide how to deal with the spill.
This is what happened to Rob Abbott, director of environmental consulting
services for his company. Ironically, he was in the middle of an environmental
audit for the company when the spill happened.
"We dropped our pens and papers and ran out," recalls Abbott.
Or imagine your expertise being a key element in a multimillion-dollar
transaction. Anne Davis recently worked in a situation where a company was
being sold and Davis helped the purchaser identify environmental concerns
in the property.
The purchaser wanted to know the environmental liabilities to help negotiate
a better price. In the end, he opted for an indemnity in the agreement that
the vendor would be responsible for the cost of any environmental cleanup
required on the property.
"Increasingly, businesses recognize there are all kinds of risks," says
Davis.
Abbott and Davis are breaking ground in the field of environmental accounting.
"It truly is pioneering. I think too often when you ask people about the
environment, they are looking at it from [a] scientific standpoint. We're
looking at it from a management strategy," says Davis.
Davis was an audit partner with her current company when the firm started
looking at the environment as an opportunity. With a bachelor's degree
in science, Davis was approached to join the new department.
Environmental accounting is not just about potential costs. Davis also
explains possible savings to her clients.
Davis says there are increasing opportunities for companies to trade in
countries which might be closed to them without sound economic practices.
As an environmental management consultant, Abbott says he can help companies
solve their immediate problems, and teach them skills so they have a reasonable
chance of not repeating the same mistakes in the future.
The oil spill scenario is a good example of this.
"A diesel tank had been overflowing and there was diesel fuel flowing onto
the ground. It was moving towards a storm sewer. It could have been disastrous.
But we contained the spill and prevented anything from entering the sewer.
Then we initiated a cleanup and ensured the oil that hadn't overflowed
was put into secure containers."
Abbott loves what he does.
"I've wanted to do this all my life," he says. "I suppose there's
a sanctimonious side of it -- I believe that I am making a difference. There's
a tremendous amount of satisfaction in helping a company -- be it large or
small -- that is having problems from an environmental perspective."
He also likes the diversity. "By virtue of being a management consultant,
I get a tremendous range of assignments locally, nationally and, increasingly,
internationally. And the exposure I get to different kinds of companies and
to different types of people is very gratifying."
Abbott says he's very lucky to be one of the few people out there
who got involved in environmental accounting and management at the very beginning.
"I was in an enviable position in the early '80s, being offered a
job as a management consultant just when [corporations] were beginning to
take notice of environmental systems, environmental auditing and environmental
management. So I really got in on the ground floor," says Abbott.
Abbott says environmental accounting is here to stay.
"The prospects are very exciting, very exciting indeed, especially for
accountants who have a science background with an accounting designation.
They have a formidable and winning combination."
Davis says the environment has dropped down the corporate priority list
over the last few months, as the economy becomes more important.
Yet companies can't afford to ignore either the economy or the environment,
she notes. "We're not talking about tree hugging because it feels good
-- we're talking about financial risks that need to be managed."
Davis says environmental accounting is helping shape the future of accounting
in North America. "Accounting today is more than bean counting," she laughs.
"You have to be a good accountant, but with environmental accounting you can
get out of the box!"