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DIN Standards Committee Quality Management, Statistics and Certification

Overview

This International Standard provides a general framework for material flow cost accounting (MFCA). MFCA is a management tool that can assist organizations to better understand the potential environmental and financial consequences of their material and energy use practices. Under MFCA, the flows and stocks of materials within an organization are traced and quantified in physical units (for example, mass, volume) and the costs associated with those material flows are also evaluated. The resulting information can act as a motivator for organizations and managers to seek opportunities to generate financial benefits and simultaneously reduce adverse environmental impacts. MFCA is applicable to any organization that uses materials or energy, regardless of their products, services, size, structure, location, and existing management and accounting systems. MFCA can be extended to other organizations in the supply chain, both upstream and downstream, thus helping to develop an integrated approach to improving material and energy efficiency in the supply chain. This extension can be beneficial because waste generation in an organization is often driven by the nature or quality of materials provided by a supplier, or the specification of the product requested by a customer. By definition, management accounting and environmental management accounting (EMA) focus on providing organizations with information for internal decision-making. MFCA, one of the major tools of EMA, also focuses on information for internal decision-making, and is intended to complement existing environmental management and management accounting practices. Although an organization can choose to include external costs in an MFCA analysis, external costs are outside the scope of this International Standard. The MFCA framework presented in this International Standard includes common terminologies, objectives and principles, fundamental elements, and implementation steps. However, detailed calculation procedures or information on techniques for improving material or energy efficiency are outside the scope of this International Standard. This International Standard is not intended for the purpose of third party certification. This International Standard provides: - common terminologies; - objectives and principles; - fundamental elements; and - implementation steps. In addition, the annexes illustrate some of the differences between MFCA and conventional cost accounting, cost evaluation methods, and case examples of MFCA application from different sectors and a supply chain. The document has been prepared by Technical Committee ISO/TC 207 "Environmental management" of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and adopted by Technical Committee CEN/SS S26 "Environmental management" (secretariat: CCMC). During the preparation of the standard the collaboration of DIN, the German the German Institute for Standardization e. V., was realized by Working Group NA 172-00-02-01 AK "Materialflusskostenrechnung" ("Material flow cost accounting") of the Principles of Environmental Protection Standards Committee (NAGUS).

Document: references other documents

Document: referenced in other documents

Responsible national committee

NA 172-00-02-01 AK - Monetary valuation in environmental management  

Responsible european committee

CEN/BT - BT Technical Board  

Responsible international committee

ISO/TC 207/SC 1 - Environmental management systems