Sustainability Accounting Articles

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 ...

May 11, 2004

By Inderscience Publishers

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, ...

Dec. 21, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers

Material flow accounting of Spain

Material throughput is a means of measuring the so-called social metabolism, or physical dimensions of a society's consumption, and can be taken as an indirect and approximate indicator of sustainability. Material flow accounting can be used to test the dematerialisation hypothesis, the idea that technological progress causes a decrease in total material used (strong dematerialisation) or ...

Jan. 28, 2005

By Inderscience Publishers

Carbon accounting software solution

Fujitsu is a leading provider of IT-based business solutions for the global marketplace. With approximately 175,000 employees across 70 countries, Fujitsu is one of the world’s largest IT service providers. In 2008 Fujitsu announced an ambition to reduce CO2 emissions by 30 million tonnes by 2020 through environmental innovation. In addition, the company has committed to becoming an industry ...

Jul. 28, 2009

By Greenstone

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 ...

Oct. 23, 2014

By Inderscience Publishers

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 ...

Jun. 1, 2006

By Inderscience Publishers

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 ...

Sep. 1, 2004

By Inderscience Publishers

Management accounting, chain management and corporate responsibility

1. Introduction The environment of companies is constantly changing. In dealing with these changes management shape policies. Within the business society the concept of Corporate Responsibility (CR) is getting a lot of attention. The concept assumes an integrated approach towards three different dimensions of performance, which were coined into 'People, Profit and Planet'. The ...

Mar. 4, 2008

Water resource accounting for Uganda: use and policy relevancy

This paper uses the system of economic and environmental accounting for water to demonstrate how the water sector interacts with the social-economic sectors of the economy. Furthermore, it reviews the existing institutional and policy framework in Uganda, and proposes an analytical framework which can be used to provide sound inter-sectoral planning in order to achieve sustainable water ...

Jun. 23, 2015

By IWA Publishing

Looking Back on 15 Years of Greenhouse Gas Accounting

Most people are familiar with the old adage “You can’t manage what you don’t measure.” Over the past 15 years, we at WRI have certainly seen the truth in that statement. The Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. A joint initiative of WRI and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the GHG ...

Jan. 28, 2014

By World Resources Institute WRI

European Union CO2 emissions: different accounting perspectives

The aim of this technical report is to explain to a wider audience the concepts and methodologies behind different air emission accounting perspectives and the resulting emissions data at the EU level. In brief, there are three of these different accounting perspectives: territorial, production and consumption. Three perspectives on air emissions The territorial ...

Dec. 18, 2013

By European Environment Agency (EEA)

"In the midst of economic disaster, can the USA still care about green accounting? .... Which is more important a sustainable economy or a sustainable environment?"

The Obama administration has called for a heightened amount of transparency in financial reporting culminating from the recent debacle on Wall Street. Interestingly, as our economy wavers between recession and or depression, the worldwide economy is focused on gross domestic product or GDP which measures the total production and consumption of goods in our domestic economy (Curwood, 2004). How ...

Dec. 21, 2010

By Inderscience Publishers

Accounting for accidents in the measurement of transport inefficiency: a case of Taiwanese bus transit

Conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) measuring transport efficiency (or inefficiency) has impractically assumed that accidents are freely disposable. The present paper attempts to rectify this impractical assumption by proposing directional output distance function models into which different types of casualties are factored. The core logic is to convert different types of casualties – ...

Apr. 14, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

Towards a generally accepted CSR accounting framework: a literature mapping

The measuring of CSR performance is high priority in the research agenda of academics. To this end, several methodological frameworks and approaches have been recommended. These frameworks can be divided in two categories: single indicators and composite indexes. This pluralism in the definitions, while enhancing the academic debate, cancels the core requirements of a generally accepted ...

Dec. 1, 2008

By Inderscience Publishers

Promises Kept: Ensuring ambition and accountability through a Rio +20 “compendium of commitments”

Introduction In an effort to ensure that the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20) generates meaningful outcomes, governments and other stakeholders increasingly support using the Conference to announce specific and time-bound commitments, and to agree on a “framework” to hold each other accountable for results. This so-called “Compendium of ...

Mar. 30, 2012

By World Resources Institute WRI

Yorkshire Water Develops Environmental Profit and Loss Account Case Study

The EP&L was created in partnership with Trucost, the global leader in natural capital valuation. By putting a monetary value on positive and negative environmental impacts, companies can better manage the challenges posed by climate change, resource scarcity and a growing population. Yorkshire Water wanted to investigate the potential of natural capital valuation to deliver insights for its ...

May 20, 2014

By Trucost Plc

Results and lessons from implementing the Water Assets Accounts in the EEA area

The United Nations System of National Accounting (SNA) framework provides an internationally agreed methodology for national economic accounts. SNA accounts are the main source of information for the internationally comparable economic aggregates and indicators which are used to assess the economic performance of countries. Examples are gross domestic product (GDP), value added, income, ...

May 22, 2013

By European Environment Agency (EEA)

Position paper: Accounting for peatland hotspots in the new climate agreement

Introduction Peatlands (~organic soils) worldwide store twice as much carbon as all forest biomass, although they cover only a tenth of the land. The drainage of peatlands, for forestry and agriculture, leads to the oxidation of this carbon and increases their vulnerability to peat fires, leading to huge emissions of greenhouse gases. Hotspots for mitigation ...

Nov. 28, 2014

By Wetlands International

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 ...

Oct. 12, 2009

By Inderscience Publishers

Launch of the First Greenhouse Gas Accounting Tool for Chinese Cities

A new Greenhouse Gas Protocol tool to help Chinese cities measure and manage their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions was launched today in Beijing. The tool, called the Greenhouse Gas Accounting Tool for Chinese Cities (Pilot Version 1.0), was developed by the World Resources ...

Sep. 12, 2013

By World Resources Institute WRI

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