This is the fourth in a series publishing the best contributions on environmental management accounting (EMA) from around the world. This volume brings together international examples of leading thinking and practice in this rapidly developing area. This is the most comprehensive volume to date covering theory, practice and case studies on sustainability accounting and reporting. It covers tools, frameworks, concepts as well as case studies and empirical analysis.
Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting deals with organizations’ assessment, articulation and disclosure of their social and environmental impact on various groups in society. There is increasingly an understanding that financial information does not sufficiently discharge organizational accountability to members of society who are demanding an account of the social and environmental impacts of companies’ and other organizations’ activities. As a result, organizations report ever more social and environmental information, and there are simultaneous movements towards providing the information in an integrated fashion, showing how social and environmental activities influence each other, members of society and the financial aims of the organization. The book Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting provides a broad and comprehensive review of the field, focusing on the interconnection between different elements of these topics, often dealt with in isolation. The book examines the accounting involved in the collection and analysis of data, control processes over the data, how information is reported to external parties, and the assurance of the information being reported. The book thereby provides an overview useful to practitioners (including sustainability managers, consultants, members of the accounting profession, and other assurance providers), academics, and students.
This book provides a broad overview of how sustainability reporting has grown, how it is used now and where it is heading. Daily, we read and hear in various media about concepts such as corporate social responsibility (CSR), sustainability reporting, sustainability accounting, environmental reports, corporate citizenship or environmental management systems. Accounting for Sustainability decodes this terminology by providing an accessible introduction to the topic that explores sustainability reporting from an internal and external perspective. It begins with an overview of how sustainability reporting has emerged and why it is important, before moving on to cover definitions of key terms and specific theories and frameworks. Subsequent chapters explore the role of financial management, sustainability standards, accounting communication and capital markets. With learning outcomes and study questions embedded in each chapter, this book will be of great interest to students of sustainability reporting and accounting, as well as practitioners taking related professional accreditations.
The demands placed on land, water, energy and other natural resources are exacerbated as the world population continues to increase together with the expectations of economic growth. This, combined with concerns over environmental change, presents a set of scientific, policy and management issues that are critical for sustainability. Resource Accounting for Sustainability Assessment: The nexus between energy, food, water and land use offers an approach for multi-scale, integrated assessment of this nexus. It presents a comprehensive and original method of resource accounting for integrated sustainability assessments. The approach is illustrated with three detailed case studies: the islands of Mauritius, the Indian state of Punjab, and the energy economy of South Africa. The relationships between flows of goods, services and materials in these case studies offer valuable insights. The book provides a much needed quality control on the information used in deliberative processes about policy and planning activities. This innovative book will be of interest to researchers, students and practitioners in the fields of sustainability science, international development, industrial ecology, sustainable resource management, geography and ecological economics.
This book proposes effective means for sustainable development through ethical accounting and reporting of the use of social and environmental resources.
If businesses and other organizations are to meet the many and complex challenges of sustainable development, then they all, both public and private, need to embed sustainability considerations into their decision-making and reporting. However, the translation of this aspiration into effective action is often inhibited by the lack of systems and procedures that take sustainability into account. Accounting for Sustainability: Practical Insights will help organizations to address these issues. The book sets out a number of tools and approaches that have been developed and applied by leading organizations to: - embed sustainability into decision-making, extending beyond an organization's boundaries to take into account suppliers, customers and other stakeholders; - measure and link sustainability and financial performance; - integrate sustainability into 'mainstream' reporting, both to management and external stakeholders. In-depth cases studies from Aviva, BT, the Environment Agency, EDF Energy, HSBC, Novo Nordisk, Sainsbury's and West Sussex County Council show in detail how accounting for sustainability works in practice in a wide range of organizational contexts. Published with The Prince's Charities: Accounting for Sustainability
This book advances the understanding of corporate sustainability and challenges and roles of sustainability accounting in the Asia-Pacific region. The Asia-Pacific region has shown fast economic growth for several decades which is expected to continue. In this context, Asia has become the “production engine” of the global economy. At the same time scientific reports reveal that some planetary boundaries are crossed, for example relating to biodiversity and climate change. Companies in the Asia-Pacific region are therefore increasingly challenged to reduce their environmental impacts, to document their social contribution and to contribute to sustainable development. Key approaches to identify sustainability problems and challenges, to support improvement processes and to back up sustainability contributions include accounting and reporting. In contrast to the high relevance of accounting and reporting for corporate sustainability for the Asia-Pacific region, academic research has so far been dominated by Western researchers and pre-dominantly dealt with Western and Japanese cases and approaches. It is thus time to take account of Asian perspectives on accounting and reporting for sustainability in the Asia-Pacific region.
Modern companies are subject to increasing pressures to conduct their business in an environmentally responsible manner due to social and environmental problems. Management of sustainable performance is one of the phenomena faced by the current business environment and, in particular, management corporations. The focus of management on profitability remains the main objective of any company, but it must also take into account the sustainability of social, economic, and environmental aspects. Under these circumstances, managerial decisions need to be adjusted and strongly substantiated, considering the information required by internal and external stakeholders, including financial reporting. The information requirements of customers and other stakeholders are steadily increasing, and some companies face certain problems in implementing the concept of sustainability and environmental reporting. CSR and Management Accounting Challenges in a Time of Global Crises is a comprehensive reference source that explores various theoretical and practical approaches of management accounting and its impact in the 21st century and investigates new accounting and financial approaches where economic and social aspects become mutually supportive to enhance their impact on community development. Covering topics such as CSR reporting, sustainability, and greenwashing, this book is an essential resource for academicians, specialty organizations, chief financial officers (CFOs), financial controllers, business analysts, financial planning and analysis (FP&A) analysts, budgeting managers, students, researchers, and business environment managers and specialists.
Invaluable guidance for complete integration of sustainability into reporting and performance management systems Global businesses are under close scrutiny from lawmakers, regulators, and their diverse stakeholders to focus on sustainability and accept responsibility for their multiple bottom line performance. Business Sustainability and Accountability examines business sustainability and accountability reporting and their integration into strategy, governance, risk assessment, performance management and the reporting process. This book also highlights how people, business and resources collaborate in a business sustainability and accountability model. Looks at business sustainability and accountability reporting and assurance and their incorporation into the reporting process Focuses on how the business sustainability and accountability model are impacted by the collaboration of people, business, and resources Presents laws, rules, regulations, standards and best practices relevant to business sustainability performance, reporting and assurance Organizations worldwide recognize the importance of all five EGSEE dimensions of sustainability performance and accountability reporting. However, how to actually assess sustainability risk, implement sustainability reporting, and obtain sustainability assurance remain a major challenge and best practices are evolving. Straightforward and comprehensive Business Sustainability and Accountability hits on all of the hottest topics around sustainability including multiple bottom line (EGSEE) performance and reporting, related financial and non-financial key performance indicators (KPIs), business social responsibility and environmental reporting.
This book discusses recent developments relating to ethical and sustainable issues in accounting & finance. Accounting is often seen as a technical discipline that records, classifies and reports financial transactions. However, since the financial information produced concerns all interest groups both within and outside the enterprise, accounting also has social characteristics and involves multi-faceted duties and responsibilities. As such, in addition to basic principles and accepted rules and standards in the field, this book focuses on the ethical aspects and fundamentals of this profession that accountants should also take into consideration, as this is the only way to build and preserve society’s confidence in accounting and increase its social credibility.
