Sustainability is maintaining the world’s resources rather than depleting or destroying them. This will ensure they support human activity now and in the future.
Sustainable development describes a process by which we get to sustainability.
We define sustainable business is the actions, activities, and obligations of businesses in achieving sustainability.
It involves reconnecting business, society and the environment and recognising their interdependence.
It is important to note that without the environment neither business nor society could exist. This is why sustainability is a strategic imperative for business.
Why does ICAEW think it’s so important?
The debate around sustainability is based on sound logic. We believe our members must be informed about these issues and should be represented in the debate.
Business does not operate in a vacuum
Any company is reliant on a whole range of people who surround it. Those who buy its good and services, those who work for it and governments who grant licence to operate, amongst many others.
The attitudes of these stakeholder groups has shifted and business need to adapt to this change. It is after all not the strongest but the most adaptable that survive.
This change has been noted by our membership. The Big 4 have reported for years that the number one question graduates now ask is whether they have a sustainability strategy. Members in business have increasingly been asked to supply their environmental policy to their clients and savvy members in practice have developed sustainability and carbon services to meet the rising demand in these services.
The science stands up
It is now clear that we are no longer talking about the survival of future generations but the here and now. We face the real possibility of not being able to meet our own needs.
We now know we have limited world resources and we also know we have a rapidly growing world population. This is an equation that no longer adds up. The impact of doing nothing will be a catastrophic destruction of business value.
We must capture the enterprise of business to help us meet the challenges of the future and are committed to promoting the business case for sustainable business to help them do that.
The Royal Charter and public interest
We are governed by a Royal Charter - 11 May 1880 (PDF 23KB/2 pages), which commits us to serve the public interest. We believe that ensuring our members understand the implications of sustainability issues like climate change falls very much under that remit.
We have much to add
In our publication Sustainability: the role of accountants (PDF 413KB/116 pages) we examine the mechanisms through which individuals, society and governments can encourage business to become more sustainable. Good quality information that is trusted is vital to the success of this process, without we won’t know if we have reached our goal of sustainability. Providing such information falls naturally under the remit of the accountant.
As a result, accountancy bodies all over the world are working on sustainability issues. The topic is the focus of discussions at the European Federation of Accountants (FEE) and the Global Accounting Alliance (GAA).
In 2006 the Prince of Wales launched ‘Accounting for Sustainability’. This project encourages organisations to measure the wider environmental and social costs of their actions more effectively. The forum meeting in December (2008) discussed the topic Accounting for sustainability: decision-making and reporting in a resource constrained world (PDF 135KB/18 pages). Here, accounting bodies from around the world came together to share their work on sustainability and to try and drive the agenda forward.