Accounting as a tool for sustainable business

• Accounting is a tool that has been used for hundreds of years in order to provide enterprises and stakeholders with information needed for decisions. Accounting has developed because of the changing needs for information. During the last decades, the need for a new type of information has emerged for enterprises and organizations and for their stakeholders that have ambitions and strategies for sustainable operations. This newly emerging need has increased the demand for reliable information about sustainability indicators for and from enterprises.This chapter discusses and argues for an extension of accounting as a tool to present information on sustainability dimensions of enterprises. Sustainable enterprise theory and modified accounting postulates are introduced and discussed from the perspective of both internal and external reporting. Evidence from practice illustrates the need for an accounting concept of sustainability reporting.This chapter concludes that accounting and auditing professions need to take part in the development of sustainability reporting. New and adapted normative equity theories are the bases for a framework for sustainability accounting and reporting. The framework also facilitates audits of sustainability reports and internal control.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Sustainability

accounting

reporting

management control

audit and assurance

sustainable business

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kap (subject category)