VOLUNTARY SUSTAINABILITY DISCLOSURE (Accounting)
Project description
This essay should consider the issue of sustainability and the role of the accounting profession in the development of meaningful sustainability reporting
You should ensure that you have researched and can discuss and critique the following key areas:
• The ideas and meaning of sustainability to different stakeholder groups and how these ideas have been adopted by the accounting profession
• The methods by which sustainability is reported by organisations
• The role of KPI’s and narrative in this reporting and its relative usefulness to investors and other stakeholders
• Evidence that the disclosure is considered to be useful – or not – is it signalling, regulatory capture, impression management, legitimacy?
• Evidence of a dominant link to risk reporting and whether this is meaningful
• The main challenges facing the development of sustainability reporting – what standards should be set, how could they be articulated, how could they be audited
• What is the impact of the sustainability reporting on the behaviour of organisations – is it instrumental engagement? (this may be through impression management/ reputation building and other instrumental approaches to this or more deeply in changing attitudes towards profit) and whether this is merely a fad.