The necessary characteristics of environmental auditors: a review of the contribution of the financial auditing profession

The business community faces many pressures from the green consumer, environmental groups, employees and investors to accept its environmental accountabilities and to provide information about its environmental performance. This information is becoming increasingly important to a broad range of corporate stakeholders because it is a key resource in managing a business’s response to the issue of environmental accountability. Businesses need to ascertain whether potential responsibilities for environmental implications on business are considered within their companies. A number of arguments have emerged concerning the relevance of the financial auditing profession in contributing to this area of environmental concerns. The paper is principally concerned with (1) reviewing the literature in an attempt to answer the questions: (i) can the financial audit profession make a contribution in the area of environmental audits? (ii) are financial auditors in a position to assess environmental implications for business and take part in environmental auditing? (2) The paper goes on to suggest a general framework of the necessary characteristics of environmental auditors.