Assessment of sustainable development and knowledge of environmental management: Internal auditors' perspectives

To examine whether there are differences with respect to internal auditors' attitude toward environmental protection, cognizance of environmental auditing and environmental knowledge.

A questionnaire survey based research method is used and a Mann‐Whitney U‐test as well as a T‐test is applied on this data.

There is no difference between internal auditors in the manufacturing industry and those in the service industry with respect to environmental awareness and cognizance of environmental auditing. Yet there is a significant difference with respect to knowledge of environmental protection.

This study is limited to that of internal auditors' perspectives.

Internal auditors are the “watch dogs” for firms to implement environmental management so that strengthening their environmental knowledge is required.

This study reveals internal auditors' perception toward environmental management in both high‐ and low‐pollution industries that go beyond green auditing issues.