Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting

by Charl de Villiers (Editor), Warren Maroun (Editor)

Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting deals with organizations’ assessment, articulation and disclosure of their social and environmental impact on various groups in society.

There is increasingly an understanding that financial information does not sufficiently discharge organizational accountability to members of society who are demanding an account of the social and environmental impacts of companies’ and other organizations’ activities. As a result, organizations report ever more social and environmental information, and there are simultaneous movements towards providing the information in an integrated fashion, showing how social and environmental activities influence each other, members of society and the financial aims of the organization.

The book Sustainability Accounting and Integrated Reporting provides a broad and comprehensive review of the field, focusing on the interconnection between different elements of these topics, often dealt with in isolation. The book examines the accounting involved in the collection and analysis of data, control processes over the data, how information is reported to external parties, and the assurance of the information being reported. The book thereby provides an overview useful to practitioners (including sustainability managers, consultants, members of the accounting profession, and other assurance providers), academics, and students.

Review
'This excellent publication on sustainability accounting and integrated reporting has been edited by two senior academics in the field. The various chapters provide interesting insights into sustainability accounting and integrated reporting starting from voluntary external disclosure, stakeholder engagement, organizational focus and finally, assurance. The book testifies that the notion of integrated reporting and sustainability accounting is vibrant and offers various perspectives about and to organisations and society to manage and disclose valuable capital, other than just financial capital. This book is a valuable step for anyone who wishes to participate in dialogs about sustainability accounting and integrated reporting theoretically and practically. A must for scholars, students, practitioners and policy makers who are working in these areas.' - Professor James Guthrie, Distinguished Professor of Accounting, Department of Accounting & Corporate Governance, Macquarie University

About the Author
Charl de Villiers is a professor of accounting, Graduate School of Management, The University of Auckland, New Zealand, where his research interests include sustainability accounting and integrated reporting. He is also a professor at the University of Pretoria, an adjunct professor at several other South African universities, and a research fellow at the Centre for Sustainability Management, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany. Charl has more than 250 research based publications and presentations, including over 60 articles in refereed journals, including in Accounting, Organisations and Society; Journal of Management; European Accounting Review; Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal; Journal of Accounting and Public Policy; Accounting and Business Research; Accounting & Finance; and British Accounting Review. Charl is the editor-in-chief of Meditari Accountancy Research and serves on the editorial board of several other research journals.

Warren Maroun is a professor at the School of Accountancy, University of the Witwatersrand. His research interests include: corporate reporting, integrated reporting, external audit and corporate governance with a specific focus on the functioning of mechanisms of accountability. Warren has published over 30 journal articles, including in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal; British Accounting Review; Accounting Forum; and International Journal of Auditing. He has also produced technical and practitioner-focused reports for the Association of Certified Chartered Accountants and the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants. Warren holds a PhD from King’s College London.