Accounting Industry as a Partner for Sustainable Development

The study tries to shine a light on the progress by the profession in integrating sustainability over the past decade, but it’s the lack of progress that shines through. On the positive side are the conceptual underpinnings for sustainability reporting, as practiced by adherents to the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. There also is some progress in expanding the boundaries of accounting, such as environmental financial accounting for external reporting, or environmental management accounting for internal decision making. But the study includes a lengthy list of failures of the profession, including the failure of accountants to join with others — such as environmental economists — to develop appropriate environmental costing techniques; the failure to recognize environmental sustainability issues as major strategic or financial issues that should engage capital markets; the lack of close relationship between the accounting and environmental functions inside companies; and the failure to advance the business case for environmental and sustainability management