Environmental Management Accounting for Sustainable Development in Greece

ABSTRACT Inspired by the view that Sustainable Development is now considered a global goal, the present paper aims at highlighting the mediating role of various factors in the relationship between Environmental Management Accounting and the implementation of sustainability reporting standards. Multiple linear regression analysis was conducted on the total sample of 160 companies listed on the Athens Stock Exchange in 2022 to investigate, on the one hand, the extent of adoption of sustainability reporting standards and, on the other hand, whether certain company traits and financial characteristics affect the company's obligation to adopt sustainability standards. The results demonstrate a significant positive correlation between certain company characteristics (i.e., industry sector and company size) and the adoption of sustainability reporting standards. Our findings also reveal that a mere 8.70% of companies with over 500 employees do not adopt any of these sustainability reporting standards. This study aims to motivate, both at the national and international level, policymakers to design and formulate strategies related to Environmental Management Accounting and consequently Green Accounting, as a commonly accepted practice by all countries so that stakeholders can be informed about the assessment of business performance and of their value and prospects through the uniform disclosure of information.