Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), on November 16, 2007, officially proposed the international standardization of material flow cost accounting (MFCA) as a new work item for the International Standard Organization's Technical Committee on Environmental Management, known as ISO TC 207.

The MFCA, one of the environmental management accounting methods effective in "visualizing" environmental values, will be part of the ISO 14000 family that includes environmental management systems. The MFCA is a means to measure flows and stocks of raw materials and energy within an organization on a quantitative basis (e.g., weight or volume) and to evaluate them based on production costs, or in other words, on a monetary basis. In doing so, accurate costs of wastes and emissions can be identified, which allows both waste reduction and increased productivity at the same time.

Because the MFCA is an effective tool for the dual pursuit of a healthy environment and economy, METI has carried out various programs for large companies and small-and-medium sized enterprises to disseminate and promote its use. For instance, METI implemented model projects to introduce the MFCA and prepared the MFCA guideline, while also organizing seminars and workshops to show how to calculate real costs. This proposal is the first in the world in the area of environmental management accounting, as well as the first proposal by Japan in the environmental management field.

http://www.meti.go.jp/english/newtopics/data/nBackIssue20071116_01.html
http://www.meti.go.jp/english/policy/c_main_environment.html#5
- METI Issues Environmental Accounting Workbook (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/db/74-e

Posted: 2008/03/13 10:15:57 AM

TAG Government , System/Law