Environmental Management Accounting, Eco-Efficiency Profiles, and Effluent Charges for Costa Rican Coffee Mills

The principal aim of this paper is to show how instruments for the environmental regulation of industrial water pollution can be made more effective and efficient by using an information-based instrument such as eco-efficiency profiles. The paper demonstrates how eco-efficiency profiles can be linked to environmental management accounting systems.A sector-specific profile is created for coffee mills, and the paper goes on to argue that a compulsory eco-efficiency profile program, coupled with a pollution charge, might promote a better integration of environmental management at the level of the firm and improve environmental performance. It is shown that eco-efficiency profiles can be created even from the information which is presently available, generated by existing regulation.