Twentieth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Sustainability Accounting (SA) are topics that have recently started to be in stakeholders’ minds. The main reason is because concerns about climate change, environmental issues and the role that companies are playing on it have increased worldwide. The main question is not if companies are part of the problem; we all have already assumed that everyone, including big and small companies contribute to the problem. The main question is if companies are willing to take action into trying to solve the problem and/or decrease the damage they are causing. In the last decade, more companies have been including sustainability reports and goals in their business plan. However, this is not enough since data is usually inaccurate, misleading and or inexistent. Here is where Sustainability Accounting must play an important role in fixing the problem related to reporting, contrasting and controlling that companies are actually being transparent about their sustainability performance. Currently, there is not an international body that has neither established nor enforced definitions, common practices, measurements and rules for Sustainability Accounting. The main purpose of this thesis is to find out the issues that are stopping Sustainability Accounting from being a huge part of reporting and the advantages both companies and their stakeholders would benefit from engaging in better Sustainability Accounting reporting. It is finally time we use all our resources and knowledge to improve the way we report and disclose sustainability performance.