ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING AS A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN CROATIAN COMPANIES

Sustainability has become a term that applies in all aspects of life. Ecology and sustainability are present today in all aspects of life, including in accounting for modern business organizations. The progress of society and industry leads to serious problems for the conservation of natural habitats and ecological conditions of life. Therefore, it raises the question of what companies, management and regulatory bodies can do to preserve the environment in the present but also in the future. The key role in such a way of monitoring the environment is to have systems of measurement and recording of adverse impacts on the environment. One of such systems of measurement and recording of environmental protection, indexing, organization and management of data, the provision of environmental information through physical or monetary indicators is an environmental accounting system. Environmental accounting is an indispensable tool for the application of the concept of sustainable development and is mandated as a means to measure environmental conservation and / or measurement of environmental impacts to increase company performance. That is, it is necessary to include environmental data and socially responsible business operations in the official reports of economic entities, as well as the implementation of such data in business plans. This paper wants to investigate the extent to which environmental accounting is carried out in Croatian companies and how much environmental accounting contributes to the creation of value-added enterprises and the achievement of profits.Key words: Environmental protection, environmental accounting, sustainable development strategyJEL: R11, Q56