There is a lot of talk about climate change and often a bewildering range of accompanying terms, ideas, philosophies and actions. It’s hard to know exactly when and how to get involved. Sustainability issues such as climate change present major financial, strategic and operational challenges for business (see our green paper or articles on climate change). As a result, business will need to adapt to change. We see the role of the accountant as critical in navigating these changes.
Why? For a start, an essential element in addressing climate change is how businesses allocate and manage their resources for the production of goods and services. Accountants are the managers of strategic business resources, and as such make crucial decisions on how and where these resources are allocated. In a setting where businesses have to be increasingly accountable for their greenhouse gas emissions and such emissions will have a cost (see CPA Australia’s Carbon Footprint), this role is crucial.
CPA Australia is preparing the accounting profession to meet the challenges presented by issues such as climate change and is working on a range of development opportunities to ensure members are at the forefront of assisting their employers/clients to respond to climate change policies and adopt more sustainable business practices.
We plan to build capacity for members to bring their expertise to sustainability issues such as
- Strategy/Governance (managing corporate risk, strategy, foreign direct investments, mergers and acquisitions, reputation, governance, business process improvement),
- Strategic Business Management (interpretation & analysis, capital investment appraisal, lifecycle analysis, systems, costing models that incorporate CSR, abatement, supply chain ),
- Disclosure (voluntary and non-voluntary – measurement, non-financial data capture, choice of framework, reporting, compliance) and
- Assurance (voluntary and non-voluntary).
Sustainability is also a truly global imperative and one perfectly matched to the increasingly global response to business. That’s why we are proud to host leaders Ernst Ligteringen and Mervyn King from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) the Amsterdam-based world-leading authority in the area of non-financial business reporting. The Executive Officer and President will present keynote speeches at CPA Congress 2008. They will explore the growing awareness in business of the importance of sustainability reporting and also of the challenges ahead if this growing awareness is to translate to fundamental behavioural change. Non-financial reporting can play an important role in climate change response, the question for us is will the accounting profession be there to lead and navigate this change for business.
Kate Brent
CSR Manager
CPA Australia
October 3, 2008 at 6:38 am |
I just want to point people towards the new climate change section on the CPA Australia website https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/links?30258 it has broad information about current policies, and excellent articles about implications for business and CPAs.
October 10, 2008 at 4:10 am |
Kate, I’d like to reinforce what you’ve said about the importance of sustainability for business, and I think this is even more important now as we’re in the grips of the global financial crisis. At the CEDA event yesterday which CPA Australia proudly supported, Senator the Hon Nick Sherry, Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law spoke about Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability and made a number of important statements about the current crisis and the importance of long term sustainability.
He said that the “sub-prime examples reflects a fundamental failure of values and provides a clear example of the business and social case for CSR” and that to be sustainable, “businesses must take a long term view of their impacts on local communities and the natural environment – as well as returns to investors”.
He also went on to respond to recent conjecture that the financial crisis will put back the implementation and adoption of sustainability efforts, by saying that he didn’t think this would happen and “if anything the current crisis should accelerate its adoption” and companies should concentrate on the “shared values between them and the wider community in which they operate”. I agree with this assessment and believe it’s now more important than ever for organisations, while continuing to monitor and manage their financial risks, to consider their social and environmental impacts and manage their non-financial risks.
Sustainability reporting can provide a framework to improve management decision making and transparency in relation to non-financial impacts, and I’m really looking forward to meeting and hearing from the Chief Executive of the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), Ernst Ligteringen, at Congress next week to understand how best to go forward with its adoption in Australia.
Details for the GRI Congress sessions can be found at https://www.cpaaustralia.com.au/cps/rde/xchg/SID-3F57FECB-203AD814/cpa/hs.xsl/22645_ENA_HTML.htm
For a full transcript of Minister Sherry’s speech to the CEDA Forum in Sydney, please visit
http://minscl.treasurer.gov.au/DisplayDocs.aspx?doc=speeches/2008/030.htm&pageID=005&min=njs&Year=&DocType=
I look forward to meeting up with members during Congress and having good discussion on these issues.
Thanks,
Carlie Sargent
CSR Manager, CPA Australia
December 12, 2008 at 1:31 am |
I think a move towards responding to climate change is vital. Convergence of accounting standards, and more widely, cultural standards in general, seems to be ushered in by the Internet age.
A good example of the use of Internet in reducing greenhouse impact, is the teenage girls gossip website Miley5! Weekly, which in comparison with Who Magazine and Dolly Magazine, has near-zero carbon effect.