1996 Electronics Industry Environmental Roadmap - Civil and ...

Environmental Cost Accounting at AT&T
Strategic Business Opportunities
AT&T has recently completed the first phase of a “green accounting” project (see
EPA’s [1995] “Green Accounting at AT&T”). The project was motivated by customer
demands and management commitment to environmental protection. In the
course of exploring environmental costs, AT&T has achieved the following key
targets:
AT&T developed definitions and a common language to describe and discuss
environmental costs, benefits, and issues. For example, AT&T defines
environmental cost accounting as “identifying and measuring AT&T’s costs of
environmental materials and activities, and using this information for
environmental management decisions.” This and other definitions have been
collected in AT&T’s “Environmental Accounting Glossary.”
Activity-based costing (ABC) is used to identify the true costs of products. Activity-based
management (ABM) concepts are used to identify process cost drivers
and meaningful performance measures.
AT&T developed a self-assessment tool that its manufacturing plants can use to
establish baseline performance measures and goals for improvement. This tool
includes an initial status survey, an activity matrix (listing possible cost
categories for various “environmental” activities), and a suggested protocol for
using the survey and the matrix.
In the first half of 1995, three AT&T sites completed reviews using the
assessment tool. Feedback was positive overall, indicating that the assessment
tool was useful in identifying and understanding the costs arising from
environmental activities.
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