Kohji Hayase*, Hiroshi Akai*, Akimichi Hatta** and Hideki Wada**

* Graduate School of Biosphere Sciences, Hiroshima University
** OSTRAND Corporation

+ Correspondence should be addressed to Kohji Hayase:
(Kagamiyama 1-7-1, Higashi-Hiroshima 739, Japan)

Abstract

An environmental audit was performed for an office (a social system) selected as an experimental system, based on the concept that the "system" and the "environment" are clearly separated. In this study a useful model for an environmental audit was represented by having a concrete method to be carried out. In the office, the weight of incoming material (information-based materials, incoming copy paper and deliveries) and of outgoing material (information-based products, paper to be recycled and paper to be burned), were measured in 5-12th on November, 1993. One-sided papers both produced and consumed were figured in detail at a circulation part of the office. The environmental balance accountings, basic data of the environmental audit, were presented from the values measured. The environmental balance accounting, a balance sheet for material and energy that come and go between a social system and the environment, correspond to a balance sheet in the financial audit. After the environmental performance of this model system was evaluated by the environmental balance accounting, some proposals were presented for the reduction of environmental disadvantage. This environmental balance accounting is not a special model being applied to only a special social system, but appeared to be a common model being applied to every common social system in the world.

Key words: environmental audit, system and environment, social system, incoming and outgoing parts, environmental balance accounting