Role of Accountants and Measurement of Sustainability

Abstract

Sustainability measurement is an expression that signifies the measurements employed as the quantitative foundation for the reported management of sustainability. There have been developments to measure the sustainability by means of various instruments like indicators, metrics, etc. Role of accountants in transforming the traditional firms in to one which follows sustainable practices are very crucial. They can use sustainability accounting to bridge the gap and make the transition smooth.

Role of Accountants and Measurement of Sustainability

Introduction

We have entered 21st century. In contemporary times, many leading corporations in the United Kingdom and other Europe countries as well as America are taking actions to confront of global growth in population and ecological pressures by accepting an obligation to “sustainability” (Hart, 1996). Top Management now talks of sustainable growth, sustainable processes, sustainable products, sustainable technologies, and sustainable development. Many have initiated practical programs that consist of life cycle accounting, clean technology development, design for eco-efficiency, community outreach, and a array of other schemes. In 1999, US companies including General Motors and DuPont along with other companies pool resources in holding up a transparent Meeting of National Town on Sustainability. Their inspirations are not merely humane - modern research has revealed that quest of sustainability can lead to environmental improvements as well as societal benefits. Apart from it, it can also boost economic value for the company (Dixon, 1999; Kiernan and Martin, 1998).

Discussion

A decade has been passed but still a large number of companies, with few exceptions, cannot clearly identify the products, process, facilities and services which are contributing to sustainability. Attending the topic of sustainability calls for the capability to determine/measure sustainability in a qualitative but preferably quantitative manner. However, assessing sustainability is different from gauging other dimensions of company performance in numerous vital respects.

Definition and Indicators

Sustainability measurement is an expression that signifies the measurements employed as the quantitative foundation for the reported management of sustainability. The metrics applied for the determination of sustainability (gripping the sustainability of economic, social, and last but not the least, environmental domains, both independently and in different arrangements) are still developing: they comprise of indicators, indexes, benchmarks, audits and nowadays accounting, in addition to assessment, evaluation and other reporting systems. All these metrics used over a range of temporal and spatial scales.

The major purpose of sustainability indicators is to notify civic policy-making as element of the course of sustainability governance. These indicators can present data on any feature of the relationship of the environment with socio-economic activities (www. sapiens.revues.org). Building tactical indicator sets usually deals with merely a few simple questions:

Descriptive indicators: what is happening?

Efficiency indicators: are we improving?

Performance indicators: does it matter and are we reaching targets?

Policy effectiveness indicators: are measures working?

Total welfare indicators: Are we generally better off?

Role of Accountant

Sustainability performance reveals one main objective beyind the corporate responsibilities continuum in companies (Schaltegger and Wagner, 2006; Bhimani and Soonawalla, 2005; Johnson, 2007) from business conformance, certifying, conformity and reporting with specified standards to business ...