U.S. EPA's Environmental Accounting Project strives to help companies incorporate environmental, health, and safety (EH&S) costs and benefits into decision-making. Such costs may include not only those costs historically associated with EH&S, but also costs associated with material usage, labor, and capital resources. Heightened recognition of these costs often reveals cost-effective opportunities to prevent pollution and eliminate wastes, and encourages business decisions that are both financially superior and beneficial to the environment. The Environmental Accounting Project (EA Project) offers numerous educational resources that demonstrate successful environmental accounting approaches. This collection of case studies demonstrates the successful application of environmental accounting tools and methods in a key business area-supply chain management. Companies are fundamentally changing how they manage their supply chains. Rigid, arms-length, customer-supplier relationships are giving way to more tightly interconnected linkages. For example, many companies have suppliers automatically replenish their inventory stocks. Other companies outsource product design and development to key suppliers. Direct interaction with supply chain partners can enable a company to reduce total inventory levels, decrease product of obsolescence, lower transaction costs, react more quickly to changes in the market, and respond more promptly to customer requests.

"Environmental Accounting Project, USEPA." "EPA 742-R-00-002." "April 2000."