Accounting for Sustainability

As part of a week of events for the Prince of Wales' Charities in Wales, I was invited to speak at an event organised by the ACCA, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Sustainable Development Commission, to discuss the impact and benefits of the Prince's Accounting for Sustainability initiative. Some of the key points from the discussion are outlined below, and are followed by a short interview clip with Roger Adams, Executive Director Policy at ACCA.

20 years ago, ACCA commissioned a report “The Greening of Accountancy” that looked at where the profession should go in terms of the debate. HRH’s lead and desire is to see the inclusion of externalities in costing coming to fruition through the Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) project.

A4S is a pathway that we all need to take, rather than some far-distant vision of a new future.

A new vision of the profession – echoed in Stern’s quote about the greatest market failure of all time. Gore: “enable capital markets to achieve their intended purpose – consistently allocate capital for its best use – the continued wellbeing of people and planet.”

What are the options for A4S?

• Internal and external accounting for and of environmental costs – working with a wider set of accounts
• Disclosure of key strategic sustainability issues
• Investment decision making
• Other accounting aspects, such as greening the supply chain and supply tariff choices
• Full cost accounting –ensuring that all costs, not just contractually definable costs, are built into the operating model
• Carbon emissions

Roughly 3000 companies publish CSR reports. About 1000 of these use the GRI guidelines as a basis for their reporting, and about 25% of all reports are independently verified. Key sustainability issues must be brought into the annual accounts.

Do Lectures attendee?

Here are some ideas from Do colleague David Hieatt to get you going in the right direction if you're thinking of coming along to the next Do Lectures:

As the reputation of The Do Lectures grows around the world, our ability to fit more people into a small tent cannot grow with it. The tent holds 100 people. 80 attendees plus 20 speakers. That’s our lot. No more.

Just being able to afford a ticket isn’t enough to get you a ticket. We need to build an audience that is as interesting as the speakers. To that end, here are some things that help us to get to know you a little bit.

10 Questions for Attendees.

1, Draw a doodle of yourself?

2, When did you last inspire yourself? (Don’t include the doodle)

2 What has failure taught you? What has success taught you?

3, What bugs you? What would you like to change?

4, What was the turning point in your life?

5, How do you look at the world? Is the glass half empty or is it half full?

6, What book inspired you the most? And why?

7, Who would you love to see talk at The Do Lectures?

8, What do you do for fun?

9, If you could run one of the workshops, what would you teach everyone to do?

10, If you had a motto, what would it be?

10.5, Do you snore?

Note well: If accepted, you can’t sell your ticket for a profit or otherwise

to anyone else. The ticket is not transferable. Anyone accepted will have to pay a non-refundable deposit.

A private individual ticket costs £1K. A ticket for company costs £2K.

This money is used to fund the rest of the world to see the talks for Free. Any surplus goes toward building The Do lectures into a World Class resource tool for Doers.

Greengaged

Sophie Thomas is a Doer. In addition to co-running the respected communication & design agency Thomas Matthews, Sophie curates Greengaged, a five day feast of sustainable design ideas, run as part of the London Design Week. I was privileged to speak at Greengage's biomimicry day, with Do Lectures 2009 speaker Michael Pawlyn, Melissa Sterry from Societas, Professor Julian Vincent and Belina Raffy who brought improv action, smiles and learning to the event. The participants brought expertise, specialist knowledge, passion and appetite for action.

So many people at Greengaged offered help to make A Million Minds and Do Design happen quickly - unqualified, lovely, bounteous help. No strings, no trading favours.It feels good to be on the move. 

Another world record

As I type this, the Age of Stupid hits New York in a big way as the Big Apple takes centre stage of the world premiere, with showings in over 400 cinemas in 63 countries.

To put on a screening of your own click through to here http://www.indiescreenings.net/

Do the Observer

Mike Carter's epic bike ride around the UK took him to the Do Lectures for a few days. The lovely story of his unplanned visit is written up in today's Observer newspaper.

"I thought when I left London that this journey would change my life, as all journeys must, but I never imagined it happening so profoundly and in a tepee in a Welsh field."

Many others felt the same. To see last year's talks for free, and catch the 2009 Do Lectures when they're posted online, click here.