For new information to be valuable it must, of course, actually be new information. If new cost estimation or accounting procedures simply confirm existing beliefs, they have little likelihood of contributing to changes in decision-making, and thus little likelihood of adding value. Environmental accounting techniques will be most valuable when they correct beliefs that are biased or when they focus on issues subject to high degrees of uncertainty. A focus in much of the environmental accounting literature is on the failure to quantify environmental benefits and costs. The concern is that when benefits and costs are unquantified they are not only uncertain, but will.
