The globalization of the economy and the awareness of the society are forcing, currently, the companies to adopt a responsible position before the environment, that is, to produce without aggression the nature. For this they are implanting a System of Environmental Management in accordance with the norms of series ISO 14000. To make this management demands the application of a considerable sum of financial features, having itself to have constant preoccupation in controlling them. One understands that the accounting is one of the efficient tools most for this process. It is observed, however, that few companies, in Brazil, use the accounting in its environmental management. Therefore, the main objective of the accomplishment of this study is to verify which the degree of development of the Environmental Accounting in the Brazilian companies. After a bibliographical walk through on the subject, was elaborated a field research that consisted of the sending of a questionnaire to the accounts departements of potentially polluting industries. The universe understood the companies listed in the guide "500 bigger companies of Brazil", edition 2000, of the Exame Maganize, and the sample was of 50 companies whose invoicing, in 2000, exceed US$ 50 billion.
environmental management; accounting; application; Brazilian companies
