Small Holder Tea Industry Sustainability: Environmental Accounting and Reporting as a Strategy to Cushion on Environmental Concerns

Abstract

Human activity over the years has caused environmental degradation which in turn has led to climate change. The reversal of climate change is one of the most pertinent agenda as expressed in the World’s SDGs, Africa’s Agenda 2063, and Kenya’s Vision 2030. However, there has been unclear relationship between economic performances and environmental performance in organizations. Whether or not environmental reporting can be used as a mitigation measure to cushion environmental conservation and ensure sustainability is still unanswered. It is in this context that this study’s objective was to establish the influence of environmental reporting on sustainability accounting in the Tea industry in the Mount Kenya region by analyzing. Data was collected from 93 factory unit managers and accountants selected through simple random sampling and analyzed by simple binary regression techniques. It was established that environmental reporting influences sustainability accounting as anchored under stakeholder theory. The study also found out that tea factories practice social activities and environmental activities for which they incur costs which were treated as overhead costs and benefits derived by tea factories in terms of long term financial gains and by stakeholders in terms of social and environmental gains. Tea factories are therefore advised to adopt and practice environmental accounting and reporting by integrating it in annual financial reports which will refocus attention to environmental concerns in the tea sector and cushion the tea industry from continuous degradation and eventual collapse.