Environmental costs comprise both internal and external costs and relate to all costs
occurred in relation to environmental damage and protection. Environmental protection
costs include costs for prevention, disposal, planning, control, shifting actions and damage
repair that can occur at companies and affect governments or people (VDI 20001). This book
only deals with corporate environmental costs. External costs which result from corporate
activities but are not internalized via regulations and prices are not considered. It is the role of
governments to apply political instruments such as eco-taxes and emission control regulations
in order to enforce the “polluter-pays” principle and thus to integrate external costs into
corporate calculations.