环境管理会计信息主要是为组织内部核算和决策服务的，其为内部决策服务的程序既包括材料和能源消耗、流程及最终处置的实物程序，也包括与潜在环境影响活动相关的成本、节约和收益的货币计量程序。

　　环境管理会计的理论基础

　　1.可持续发展理论

　　它强调人类应当通过发展与自然相和谐的方式追求健康而富有生产成果的生活，而不是破坏和污染生态环境来追求发展。可持续发展理论从为人类长远利益的角度赋予了环境管理会计迫切发展的理论基础。

　　2.经济的外部性理论

　　外部不经济内部化的主要办法，就是对企业的排污进行收费甚至罚款，这已经被许多国家的政府所采纳并得到实施。外部性理论要求国家制定相应法规规范企业行为，使其承担社会成本，督促其实行环境管理会计。

　　3.环境资源价值理论

　　作为国民财富的一部分，环境资源必然有其价值。此理论要求企业重视周围环境的改善，将环境资源作为企业的一项资本对待，从而迫切要求环境管理会计对其价值进行核算。

　　EMA is the generation and analysis of both financial and non-financial information in order to support internal environmental management processes. It is complementary to the conventional financial management accounting approach, with the aim to develop appropriate mechanisms that assist in the identification and allocation of environment-related costs (Bennett and James (1998a), Frost and Wilmhurst (2000)). The major areas for the application for EMA are:

　　product pricing

　　budgeting

　　investment appraisal

　　calculating costs and

　　savings of environmental projects, or setting quantified performance targets.

　　EMA is as wide-ranging in its scope, techniques and focus as normal management accounting. Burritt et al (2001) stated: 'there is still no precision in the terminology associated with EMA'. They viewed EMA as being an application of conventional accounting that is concerned with the environmentally-induced impacts of companies, measured in monetary units, and company-related impacts on environmental systems, expressed in physical units. EMA can be viewed as a part of the environmental accounting framework and is defined as 'using monetary and physical information for internal management use'.

　　Burritt et al developed a multi-dimensional framework of EMA. Their framework considers the distinctions between five dimensions:

　　internal versus external

　　physical versus monetary classifications

　　past and future timeframes

　　short and long terms and

　　ad hoc versus routine information gathering in the proposed framework for the application of EMA.

　　Within this framework the different techniques of EMA - such as environmental lifecycle costing or environmental cost accounting - can be placed and assigned. The management of a company can choose appropriate tools on the basis of their information needs.

　　Similarly, in a series of publications (1997, 1998a, 1998b), Bennett and James describe the diverse range and scope of environmental management accounting. They provide a set of useful models, one of which is 'The Environment-Related Management Accounting Pyramid', to help evaluate environmental management accounting practices as well as to help in the design and implementation of new systems.

　　According to Bennett and James (1998a), EMA is concerned with gathering data related to the environment (lowest levels), which are converted through techniques and processes (middle level) into information which is useful for managers (top). Key data is both non-financial and financial in nature. Management accounting techniques such as performance measurement, operational budgeting, costing or pricing are used for the transformation.