Placing Sustainability at The Heart of Accounting Analysis (original) (raw)
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Sustainability accounting - historical development and future perspectives of the discipline
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Purpose-The purpose of this study is two folded. In one hand it intends to provide an overview of the historical formation and development of the scientific field of sustainability accounting, starting from the history of it's predecessor disciplines. To this end the history of accountancy is examined first, followed by the development of the idea of sustainability. Then the birth and advances of sustainability accounting are presented. The secondary goal of this research is to define the future perspectives of sustainability accounting, derived from it's origins. Methodology-This study is a historical literature review, employing an interpretative and synthesising approach by a recombination of works done in the field. The possible sources of the research drawn into comparison are books, peer-reviewed journals, conference proceedings and papers, dissertations and thesises. The final selection put a high emphasis on peer-reviewed journals as evaluated sources. Findings-The analysis reveals, that accountancy and the idea of sustainability have a long history and clearly defined definitions, while sustainability accounting is yet to be demarcated from other scientifical fields. There is not one universally accepted definition of sustainability accounting to day, also it's taxonomic placement and mandatory components are yet to be agreed on. Along with the absence of a uniform definition, opinions (and definitions) similarly concur on the three main factors of sustainability accounting, which are environmental, social and economical factors (see also as three bottom line, or TBL). Besides, researches can be grouped in two main directions: a theoretical direction, emphasizing accountability, contribution to sustainability and steps leading to sustainability (strategic) and another, consisting mainly of applicable management tools (eg. measurements, information system, reporting). Conclusion-Based upon the analyisis, there are similar characteristics in the various definitons of sustainability accounting, yet it is still an inhomogeneous, multi directional and constantly evolving field of research. Until today the most known standards were laid down with Gray's Sustainability Accounting Principles (2002) and Lambertons sustainability accounting framework (2005). We concluded to a definition of sustainability accounting as the following: Sustainability accounting is primarly a practice of measuring, analyzing and reporting on social and environmental impacts of companies, as well as on their economical sustainability, and secondarily It is also a set of principles and guidelines for the implementation of environmental awareness and social justice into the economical viewpoint. The lack of quicker development in sustainability accounting research for the last decade is likely a product of the crisis of 2009. Citing Gray "there is little or no prospect of widespread, systematic reporting by corporations without a major regulatory initiative" and to solve the crisis and to handle it's consequences must have had a priority above all, which included sustainability problems. The latest steps taken by the EU will most likely promote development. Presumably, the combination between practical needs and the work of theoretical authors will eventually lead to the development of a more crystallized and widely accepted sustainability accounting discipline on the long run, as much as it happened in the history of accountancy, with the urging need for sustainability as the accelerator of the process.
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Journal of Energy Technologies and Policy, 2013
Global warming have became a global disaster. Recently, a lot of nations meet in United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio+20. The conference generates a lot of decisions to develop sustainability of the world. The sustainability emerges as a notion to give a solution on global warming cases. Sustainability accounting gives some solution by accounting perspectives. A few of sustainability accounting researches have given the new perspective about sustainability. We try to propose a integrated information system that how to the companies accountable toward economic, social and environmental cases. The first step, the companies must integrate business strategy with society. They can use the two linkages (looking inside out and looking ouside in linkages) to do that. So the companies can do their operation sustainably. In collecting the data, companies can use twinrack approach so that they can prepare their sustainably strategies with very well. The second step, we propose that the government or their body of representation controls sustainability from each companies (go public companies) through disclosure mechanism in annually financial statement. Hopefully, this article can give new contribution to sustainability accounting researches.
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Sustainability accounting and reporting are relatively new disciplines that have their early days in the 60s and the 70s of the 20th century. In professional literature these terms have been emerging from the 90s of the last century. An array of research works dealing with various perspectives on these problems has been realised since then. Scientific terminology as well as principles, rules and methods that should be respected and used by the system have been discussed. Sustainability accounting has its roots in financial and managerial accounting, and it is possible to apply it both at macroeconomic (state) and microeconomic (corporate) level. The system provides information for all interested parties in support of decision-making processes in accordance with sustainability principles. The paper deals with sustainability accounting at the corporate level. A brief history of sustainability accounting development is presented and then main benefits and imperfections of the system are discussed. In the paper the main focus is aimed especially at the future development (prospects) of the system. The problems of sustainability accounting are solved from the world development point of view, but the state of solved problems in terms of the Czech Republic is in focus as well.