With more pressure on companies to show their green credentials, environmental accounting might well become one of the hot jobs of the future.

Here is a good summary of what it entails. Essentially, it's about risk management, collecting and analyzing information on materials flows and pollution controls for the company's executives, reporting to investors and regulators and analyzing how natural resources are used and how the company's environmental impact is being managed.

At this stage, it's a very new area. There are no no academic programs focusing on environmental accounting, and there is no professional credential for the specialty. But that could change as business and regulators become more environmentally focused.