Environmental Management Accounting in Organizational Sustainability Transformation: A Review

Abstract

This review examines the evolution of environmental management accounting (EMA) research, its role in organizational sustainability transformation, and the factors shaping that role. Bibliometric analyses of 357 Scopus-indexed publications were combined with a focused thematic synthesis of 51 transformation-oriented studies. The findings reveal a marked but non-linear expansion of EMA research and a thematic broadening from environmental costs, production efficiency, and accounting techniques toward performance, innovation, institutional influences, and organizational sustainability. The thematic synthesis shows that EMA supports sustainability transformation by integrating physical and monetary environmental information and making resource consumption, material losses, and environmental costs visible. When adopted and actively used, this information can support operational improvements, innovation, and the integration of environmental considerations into planning and strategic decision-making. However, EMA’s contribution depends on strategic and leadership conditions, organizational capabilities and collaboration, technological and information infrastructure, institutional and stakeholder conditions, and resources and implementation conditions. The review therefore conceptualizes EMA as an organizational information infrastructure whose transformational contribution depends on its effective integration into managerial processes. These findings provide an integrated understanding of EMA’s organizational role and practical guidance for strengthening its implementation.