sustainability accounting Articles
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Towards integrating sustainable development in South African universities’ accounting education
This article attempts to depict a linkage between accounting education and sustainable development and how accounting education in South Africa may be fine-tuned to play an advocacy role toward sustainable development. The methodological approach is conceptually rooted in reviews coalesced with a suggested model of reform in accounting curricula. The article revisits the notion of sustainable ...
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Sustainable Economy Indices and their application to Austria
This paper presents the sustainability evaluation of the Austrian economy using the Sustainable Economy Indices (SEI) and the respective accounting system designed for it. In the first part of the paper, the backgrounds and the theoretical basis for the measuring system are outlined. Differences from existing methods of sustainability measurement and accounting are analysed. The second part of ...
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The sustainability gap: a practical indicator of sustainability in the framework of the national accounts
The concept of sustainable development needs to be based on a clear definition of sustainability and how it is to be measured. This paper defines environmental sustainability as the maintenance of important environmental functions, and identifies seven sustainability principles that relate this requirement to current environmental issues. From these principles, the paper derives physical ...
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Applying design for sustainability in an ICT company
Environmental awareness has been raised globally, and as a consequence, sustainability is increasingly under focus. Due to increased demand from end-users and tightened legislation, companies must seriously take sustainability into account. Typically, sustainability is attempted to address only after product realisation. However, best sustainability results can be obtained through earlier ...
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Fiscal sustainability and policy implications: a post-crisis analysis for the euro area
In this paper, we examine the sustainability of euro area public finances against the backdrop of population ageing after the 2008?2009 recession. We argue that ageing costs may be higher than projected by the Working Group on Ageing Populations (AWG) of the EU's Economic Policy Committee, consider alternative indicators to quantify sustainability gaps for euro area countries and assess the ...
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Of sustainability, elephants and Prefab Sprouts
Industrial symbiosis and the qualitative optimisation of chemical fabrication methods are described as the means to attaining eco-friendly technologies. However, it is argued that the sustainability of any organised pattern of human interference with the supporting natural substrates could not be predicted with the absolute accuracy. The overwhelming complexity of ecological relationships ...
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Capital productivity determinants: East Asian perspectives
This study converses the effects of capital productivity and labour intensity on total factor productivity (TFP) intensity in ASEAN5 countries, namely Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, plus 3 countries such as China, Japan and South Korea. This study contributes to the literature of growth accounting method in the area of calculating capital productivity, labour intensity ...
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Towards genuine progress on the Genuine Progress Indicator
The construction of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI) is viewed through the lens of economic methodology. The criterion of 'consistency with a definition (of income)' as a basis for providing microfoundations for the GPI is contrasted with that of being derived explicitly from a formal model, with the deficiencies of the former highlighted. The importance of formal modelling and, through it, ...
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Green accounting: a conceptual framework
Awareness of environmental limits has led to a proliferation of accounting methodologies designed to measure the impact of human activity on the earth's ecological systems and resources. Such methodologies can be collectively described as green accounting, and categorised in three different ways; first, by whose actions are being accounted for; second, by the time period being considered; third, ...
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Escaping the resource curse in regional development: a case study on the allocation of oil royalties
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the socio–economic impact of the allocation of royalties from oil extraction on regional development through a case study on the Basilicata region (Italy). We examine how the regional government's chosen policies have impacted the income of Basilicata residents and the economic development of the region and how a different set of choices may reveal a more ...
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Genuine savings: a critical analysis of its policy-guiding value
Genuine savings (GS) is an established measure of weak sustainability (WS). It can be shown, with the help of a dynamic optimisation model, that an economy with persistently negative GS cannot be regarded as weakly sustainable. The main conclusion drawn from the empirical estimates of GS presented in this paper is that many resource intensive, developing economies appear to be weakly ...
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Auditing sustainable development reports: accountability perspective: an exploration of Egypt and the UAE practices
This study investigates whether there are differences between companies in Egypt and in the United Arab Emirates in perception and practice of auditing sustainable development reports. The examination extends to cover the recognition of firms' accountability to different stakeholders. This was suggested as the basis for reporting on sustainable development and the relevant measures for it. The ...
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Is sustainability a thermodynamic concept?
When calculating the 'degree of sustainability', socio-economic parameters and 'natural capital' are not easily quantified, and the question of the physical meaning of 'sustainability' in Thermodynamics remains relevant. On the basis of one single axiom: resource consumption of any kind can be quantified solely in terms of exergy flows, we demonstrate that for sufficiently complex systems certain ...
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Sustainability with Uncertain Future Preferences
A feature of the sustainability problem is that the preferences of future generations are uncertain. In this paper, we put forward a fairness-based definition of sustainability that takes this uncertainty into account. We analyze the implications of this definition in the context of a model of project evaluation. We show that our definition encompasses the concepts of non-declining welfare and of ...
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Embedding governance and sustainable development in ethics
Governments all over the world seem to be notoriously known for their lack of commitment to entrench ethical norms in their practices, which demand from them accountability, equity, integrity and transparency; perhaps they are just overwhelmed by the atrocious malpractices in their midst. It is not surprising that allegations and counterallegations of corruption, nepotism, cronyism or inadequate ...
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Using Ecological Footprint accounts: from analysis to applications
It is argued in this paper that sustainability has specific, definable requirements, including the need to avoid ecological overshoot – that is, a level of resource demand that exceeds ecological carrying capacity. This paper demonstrates how ecological overshoot can be measured. Our evidence suggests that humanity is already in overshoot. Indeed, most industrialised countries run significant ...
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The influence of financial situation on environmental information disclosure in China's chemical industry
From the perspective of voluntary disclosure, this paper examines empirically the impact of specific corporate financial factors on environment voluntary disclosure. Using a sample of 138 chemical industry listed companies in China, we find that more and more companies disclose environment information, which illustrates the enhanced awareness of corporate social environment. Our findings also ...
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Two Ways to Solve Your Sustainability Business Case Problems
Linking sustainability to value creation is becoming a new imperative for business leaders. But how do you know you are making the right investments and optimizing business value? When it comes time to crunch the numbers, sustainability initiatives may seem too abstract, too intangible. Frequently, benefits of this sort are difficult to quantify in ways that are credible to all decision-makers. ...
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Integrated reporting and internal cost information: a view of the historical landscape
In 2010, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S), in conjunction with the accounting profession, formed The International Integrated Reporting Committee 1 (IIRC). Their vision and guiding principles are contained in their prototype for a single corporate reporting framework (IIRC, 2012) which highlights the disclosure of ...
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The end of sustainability
The concept of sustainability is in danger of being used to serve the ends of a mass consumer society, if it promises to allow us to continue our consumerist way of life but without the usual environmental damage. I argue that even if we achieve what many supporters of sustainable development envision, namely, modes of production, distribution and consumption that minimise environmental ...
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