Why are we involved in sustainability?
We believe that accountants will increasingly be asked to contribute to this area and should have a voice in the debate.
An increasingly important concern
Sustainability is the most important concern for business and society today.
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.
Business people broadly accept that sustainability issues present a danger of a catastrophic destruction of business value. They want to know that sustainability issues are being tackled effectively.
We need governments, business and wider social interests to work together in pursuit of sustainability.
The Royal Charter and public interest
We are governed by a Royal Charter (11 May 1880), 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.
Furthermore, we are responsible for informing our members of issues relating to business practice in general. In today’s environment that includes corporate responsibility and sustainability
Supply and demand
Feedback from our members suggests that they are increasingly expected to understand issues that affect company performance, like corporate responsibility and sustainability.
Members in practice are being asked to use their expertise to measure, report and assure this type of non-financial information.
We believe that these demands will only increase over time and that we have a responsibility to ensure our members are able to deal with them.
We have much to add
In our publication Sustainability: the role of accountants (2004) 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.
Click here to read more about how we see the role of the accountant in sustainability.
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 most recent forum meeting in December (2008) discussed the topic Accounting for sustainability: decision-making and reporting in a resource constrained world. Here, accounting bodies from around the world came together to share their work on sustainability and to try and drive the agenda forward.
