Accounting for Sustainability: How they drive sustainability in business

Finance has an important role to play in business sustainability

The importance of finance to a business cannot be overstated. Businesses run on money. And their success is determined by the difference between the amount of money they spend and the amount they earn. 

And for large businesses, accounting and finance professionals are an absolute necessity.  

The financial success of a company is the most important measure of its strength. And the company’s stakeholders rely on financial success to gain what they need. This applies to all the stakeholders. Employees rely on the company to not make losses so as to get paid for their employment. Customers who use the products/services need the business to be financially successful to avail what they need. And the investors need the business to grow its revenues and profits to attain returns on their investments.

This is why finance, or those controlling the finances of a business, have a major role to play in helping the business become sustainable.

Making changes to become a sustainable business is a timely, necessary decision. But sustainability has to make sense when it comes to the numbers that matter. And for any business, the accounting and finance teams are the ones that make sense of the numbers.

Accounting for Sustainability and its goals for sustainability through finance

Accounting for Sustainability was established in 2004 by HRH The Prince of Wales. It aims to help finance leaders take action towards sustainable business becoming the normal practice. It understands the importance of finance and accounting and the role it has to play in driving sustainability in business.

There is recognition of the importance of long-term financial success to a business. And there is no pushing aside the immediate financial goals to one side either. Accounting for Sustainability works with finance leaders like CFOs, governments and regulators, accountants from all over the world as well as people from academia to drive sustainability in business through accounting.

It aims to achieve this through three core aims that underpin its activities:

• Inspire finance leaders to adopt sustainable and resilient business models
• Transform financial decision making to enable an integrated approach, reflective of the opportunities and risks posed by environmental and social issues
• Scale-up action across the global finance and accounting community

As you can see, the goals are inclusive of the range of sustainability issues that businesses face. It is not only reliant on environmental concerns, but on social issues as well.

Through their work, Accounting for Sustainability calls for stronger adoption of environmental and social concerns as important factors in the management decision-making process. It demands a connection between the environmental and social sustainability issues in a business and the financial impacts of these issues. And thereby making sustainability a significant part of a business’s overall strategic direction.

How SUSTINARO can help with business sustainability that makes sense

We believe in sustainability that makes sense. 

And for sustainability to make sense, it needs to be understood. Understood by the finance professionals in your business who crunch the numbers to help make management decisions. Understood by your investors who see the value, moral and financial, of integrating sustainability into your activities. By the customers who see how they can contribute to a better world simply buying from a sustainable business. And understood by the employees who see that sustainability in business makes their lives better.

And how you can make sure your sustainability efforts are understood is through communication. Sustainability communication from your sustainable business has to be inclusive of all your relevant stakeholders.

Your sustainability communication must educate, inform and engage your stakeholders in all your sustainability issues and efforts. And this is where SUSTINARO comes in.

Through our expertise in sustainability communication, we ensure that your sustainability efforts are understood and communicated to all the relevant stakeholders. Connect with us today, and take your most important step towards sustainability that makes sense.