Accounting for Sustainability

Sustainability reporting is an important element of corporate disclosure, with an increasingly diverse range of stakeholders demanding information on the broader social and environmental aspects of organisational performance. Accounting plays a critical role, since information on a company’s sustainability activities requires accurate metrics and disclosures. As accounting for sustainability becomes increasingly central to corporate reporting, the accounting profession has begun to offer services similar to traditional financial accounting by producing verifiable sustainability information. This course will explore issues associated with the development of sustainability accounting and the disclosure of sustainability-related activities. It will consider accounting metrics on a range of sustainability issues for internal and external reporting purposes. The implications of the need for accurate reliable information on audit assurance will also be examined. Students will also be introduced to the major difficulties and criticisms of accounting for sustainability and will gain awareness of current research into the value of disclosures to stakeholders.