Abstract
The research aims to enhance the cognitive foundations of the material flow cost accounting technique and how to measure the cost according to this technique in the research sample, and to show the benefits of the information it provides, and to study and analyze sustainable performance and clarify its economic, environmental and social pillars, as most Iraqi industrial economic units suffer from high rates of environmental pollution, waste and emissions and a shortage of available resources and energy, which led to an increase in their costs, in addition to the openness of local markets to various foreign products with low prices, and thus contributed to a decline in the sales of our products, so it is necessary to apply cost-effective techniques that help reduce environmental impacts and work on the optimal exploitation of available resources and energy, and among these techniques is the material flow cost accounting technique, which is one of the environmental management accounting techniques that works to separate and identify environmental costs as hidden costs within the total cost of the product, which gives a clear picture to the unit's management about it, and thus facilitates the possibility of reducing it, which in turn contributes to reducing waste, emissions and environmental impacts to achieve sustainable performance in its economic, environmental and social dimensions to produce environmentally friendly products with low environmental impacts and high quality. To achieve the objectives of the research, the researcher applied it in one of the Iraqi industrial economic units, which is the Southern Cement General Company - Kufa Cement Factory as a sample for the research, and based on data for the year 2022, and through field visits and personal interviews with employees, the researcher reached a set of conclusions, the most important of which are: The application of material flow cost accounting improves the use of raw materials and energy, which leads to increased efficiency and reduced costs. This method also helps improve product quality and customer satisfaction, by making it more sustainable and reducing its environmental impact during use and upon final disposal. The application of material flow cost accounting requires the economic sector in the study sample to classify and measure environmental costs using environmental management accounting methods, as this enables management to know the size and value of waste, increased pollution rates, and inefficient use of available resources and energy, so that it can make decisions that lead to reducing the overall environmental impact.
