Accounting for sustainability in an unregulated terrain.

Abstract

Sustainability has become increasingly important for businesses and societies at large. As a result, accounting and reporting on sustainability has received a great deal of attention. New corporate reporting approaches have been developed to disclose information on the three key dimensions of sustainability (environment, social and economic). However, there is yet to be a unified framework for reporting on sustainability. Several reporting frameworks have been created to guide the form and content of such corporate reports. The content of companies’ sustainability reports therefore vary and often lack comparability. This paper reviews various reporting frameworks existing for accounting for sustainability and the implications of having unregulated sustainability reporting. Based on this review, the paper proposes roles for the accounting profession and suggests some future research agenda aimed at advancing the field of sustainability accounting and reporting. The paper by so doing, is expected to act as a stimulus for more impactful research in this area.