The current stage in Egypt, and at all levels, are in need of redrafting of most plans, policies and applicable laws, with adjusting all the procedures, particularly regarding the true follow-up and control of performance, after planning that proportionate with the stage; strategic and operational, in order to overcome the stage drawbacks and Disadvantages in the light of sustainable development’s requirements in its comprehensive concept.
Perhaps the proper mentoring to ensure the safety of investments and project feasibility studies as well as the safety of the investments’ economic and social returns is considered an important step for the possibility of overcoming the difficulties of the stage and its impact on most aspects and levels. And as pointed through the United Nations’ Environmental and Economic Affairs Department’ Statistics (2005) that, “evaluation and analysis of investment has to be expanded to cover the potential environmental impacts”.
This study has imposed itself to search because of the importance of the subject in time being, where the condensation of environmental pollution, which is resulting from many of the industrial enterprises, especially with what is happening as a result of the strong pressure of technological advances in manufacturing techniques and others on many of the renewable and non-renewable natural resources.
As the role of accounting is no longer limited to the measurement and disclosure of economic events to be connected to multi-user, and it has become a comprehensive information system, and the fact that prevention is better of treatment, so there is a strong need for accounting to play its role in the evaluation of investment projects, and its impact on the environment, taking into account the environmental aspects of all of the detailed feasibility studies of projects, especially the technical and engineering studies.
The environmental risks resulting from many industrial entities and its negative effects on the surrounding environment is a problem that requires treatment through an appropriate solution, usually a solution in this kind of problems, may has more than one term; and the researcher finds that the most influential and important is the solution that extends its impact to long-term, which is supposed - in case of applying the right steps and procedures – to eliminate almost all the problems associated with environmental risks. The main goal here is to find a radical solution to track the risks associated out of their source, for preventing or at least keep them within the safe limits.
The researcher believes that the detailed feasibility studies of investment projects have effective environmental shades – specially the technical and engineering closely to operating systems – that should be considered in order to avoid what could result with the double effect risks; either on the project itself, after being a productive entity, or on the surrounding environment and with multiple levels, and this requires taking into consideration:
* Preventing environmental pollution which may result from the implementation of these projects, or at least bring it to the minimum allowable limits according to the safe border.
* Reducing waste in the used materials - main & assistant - as well as the used energies and other operating requirements.
* Achieving a balance between environment and development as well as sustainable development, with the conservation of biodiversity elements.
The researcher imagine that the losses resulting from environmental risks far outweigh the annual spending aspects required to prevent these risks and reach out to the safe limits established in order to preserve the environment at the micro and macro levels.
Perhaps what is mentioned above reflects the importance of the research on each of the academic and applied level, and indicates the difficulty of determining all the negative and the various environmental impacts, that is why the matter requires a careful study according to the rule "if we could not prevent the all, we must not leave the whole", also the importance lies in the aim to achieve the appropriate measure, or even realize an acceptable or reasonable estimate for the environmental costs which requires to Prevent the environmental risks, and source of their occurrence during the projects’ feasibility studies, so as to eliminate the causes radically and ensure environmental friendly project.
The limits of the research lies in that the focus is on the projects technical and engineering feasibility studies, and that the application was on one of the business public sector entities producing cement.
The nature of the research requires adopting a mixed approach, dominated by inductive approach where the researcher depends on stylistic theoretical analytical, and applied study together in order to achieve the goal of the research, represented in "the source tracking of environmental risks and its prevention costs", even though the nature of the environmental risks is deducted out of the industry through the applied study, in the light of testing the main research postulate that "conducting an environmental study of the detailed feasibility studies, results in source tracking of the risks and costs of preventing it, while ensuring the environmental performance safety in future, during the exercising of activity, and ensures that the entity has endured its social responsibilities and at the lowest environmental cost possible”.
The research proved the correctness of its main postulate, in addition to the following results:
Conducting an environmental study for the detailed feasibility studies means source tracking of the risks and costs of preventing it, beside ensuring environmental performance safety in future when the project is transferred to an existed entity exercising activities, and ensures carrying it its social responsibilities with the lowest possible environmental costs.
Preventing the depletion of resources and environmental pollution before it occurs, especially regarding the non-renewable resources, which we have to search for alternatives instead of it as one of the sustainable development requirements.
Through source tracking, we can avoid what causes multiple types of pollution affecting human being, mainly within the cement factories, beside the next impact on the useful life and the production capacity of the machinery and equipment in terms of the shortage happening, in addition to the increased consumption rates of spare parts and supplies, and the need to increase lighting to improve the vision due to particulates of dust and its intensity during manufacturing, as well as the impact on what is surrounding the plant either human beings or other organisms, as well as installations, whether residential or others and damaging it.
The reflections of environmental pollution affects primarily the internal operating environment, and then extends to the surrounding environments with multiple dimensions, which requires entities to take preventive actions for their own benefit first, and the consequent protection of what is surrounding from the pollution’s effects, and this requires objective appreciation of the environmental costs for achieving this, these costs which are far below what the entity and the surrounding environment bear due to environmental hazards occur, especially since the cement factories - as an application field - get the bulk of the raw materials and production requirements of quarries and territorial waters, which is representing a public ownership of the state, and made available for use as materials and supplies for the production freely, require the protection of owners of these supplies from the environmental pollution, and the Failure to do so would require prosecuting those responsible after taking a decision to close the activity.
As for the research recommendations the following should be considered:
Focusing on avoiding environmental risks from its source, through the integration of environmental study regarding the detailed feasibility studies, so as to ensure the return of environmental one and preventing the environmental conflict in respect of any of these detailed studies, and those who provide feasibility studies of the project should provide a clear and detailed report for the expected project internal and external environmental protection costs combined with expected environmental damages and risk of the project in light of laboratory measurement results, and considering this report as a main condition for authorizing the establishment of the project, within the framework of the operating requirements, and the extent of their friendship for the environment, as well as the resulting outputs, beside paying attention to the environmental aspects closely with all stages of the supply chain.
Assuring that the responsible for the projects’ feasibility studies and the owners of these projects, as well as all the existed entities to hold really what is known as “The Record of the Environmental Situation”, with follow-up to help in tightening environmental control over all elements of the input and output as well as the production waste of all kinds, and what can be recycled, including methods to getting rid of other kinds of waste, and comparing with the established criteria. This record is one of the important and supporting tools to conduct environmental auditing, or at least the possibility of obtaining the environmental assuring services which assures confidence, with an emphasis on the need to oblige projects to carry out feasibility studies auditing.
For general recommendations relating to the research topic, the following should be considered:
The necessity of establishing an administrative unit activated inside the industrial business entities and it may fulfill its mission through the auditing committees established in the light of applying Corporate Governance – and to be customized to follow environmental affairs internally, with granting it the required authority qualifying to do its mission, with the need to raise a copy of its periodic reports to the concerned authorities periodically to follow-up the environmental performance.
Regarding boards of environmental affairs and community service in the Egyptian Universities - after granting the necessary powers and authorities – should follow up the surrounding industrial entities in the governorates, where the university is located quarterly, to assure the environmental integrity of its activities as well as its outputs, in addition to assuring the compliance with what is imposed by the laws and procedures to maintain on the environment, as one of the core missions of these Councils, also they are required to present a comprehensive report including irregularities - if any - and the proposals of its overcoming these irregularities.
The following future researches are suggested:
The role of civil society organizations, and universities to support the oversight role of the environmental protection devices regarding industrial businesses entities.
The applications of the multi versions of Activity Based Costing Model and their effects on the accuracy of cost systems applied in industrial entities that have negative environment’s effects.
Predicting future environmental costs through using the appropriate predictive techniques and its impact on ensuring the safety of the environmental performance for avoiding the environmental risks.
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