Some accountants have begun to compete for work in the environmental auditing field and this essay
describes the strategies by which they have attempted to represent themselves as relevant experts. A shift
in regulatory style has stimulated experimentation with new instruments of control, including voluntary
schemes for environmental auditing which emphasise a management control system. Subsequent
attempts to define the relevant knowledge base of environmental auditing and to accredit verifiers have
created a stage on which accountants can promote their claims. The essay draws attention to the
construction of an overlap between the skills required for financial and environmental auditing. In turn,
this strategy requires that other forms of expertise, such as in the field of the applied sciences, must be
subordinated within an audit process which is controlled by the accountant. 0 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.
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