News
HRH presents the findings of The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability project
12th December 2007
The Prince of Wales launched new proposals to help organisations effectively measure and report the social and environmental costs of their actions at St James’s Palace today.
The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability project has been looking at practical ways of helping both public and private organisations to embed and report on their sustainability.
The project has now come forward with two tools to help in this task.
The first is a website which goes live today - www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk. A free resource, it provides guidance and examples of good practice for companies to make decisions on sustainability.
The second is a "reporting framework" which proposes a new way for a company to report its sustainability more clearly, concisely and comparably.
The Prince launched the findings of the project at a St James's Palace seminar this morning in front of Chancellor Alistair Darling and business leaders including the Chief Executive of J Sainsbury, Justin King, and the chairman of BT Group, Sir Michael Rake.
In a speech The Prince told the audience that a recent poll suggested 85 per cent of people believe we cannot afford to neglect the environment.
He added: "Of relevance to many of you here today, 45 per cent believe that better environmental practice should be the highest priority for business. But how do we translate this growing concern in real terms into concrete actions on the ground?"
He said: "When I first spoke publicly about accounting for sustainability, at a dinner to mark the 125th anniversary of the Institute of Chartered Accountants over two years ago, I said that
accounting mechanisms had not kept pace with our requirement for sustainability information.
”A financial report may show how profitable a company is and the wealth that it has created, but rarely will it show how the seemingly profitable company can also destroy wealth, for example, through negative environmental impacts.
"The cost of depleted natural resources and of increasing atmospheric pollution should, surely, be included in the price we pay for what we buy and consume.
"However, these costs and others like them for which future generations will pay dearly are generally not recorded in the accounts of companies or Government departments."
The Prince said there was "widespread concern" about sustainability, with committees and commissions established and strategies developed to look at it.
But he added: "The translation of this concern and aspiration into effective practical action has been inhibited by the lack of new sustainability systems and processes.
"I hope that the conclusions and recommendations of my project will be helpful in addressing this gap and that they will assist as many of you as possible in meeting the challenges of the sustainability revolution. The recommendations are not intended to be an end but a beginning to be built upon, to provide impetus for the development of corporate reporting and to change the focus of companies from making profits and in addition trying to be sustainable, to making profits because they are sustainable."
Mr Darling, speaking at today's seminar, said: "A strong sustainable future is essential. It wasn't the question of sustainability that drew me into politics, but there has been a change. Then there were different issues like high unemployment but there are few problems that can begin to rival the need to ensure a sustainable future."
He said sustainability would be a "huge part" of the 2008 Budget, adding: "There can't be a trade-off between a strong economy and a sustainable future."
The website announced today identifies and discusses the main elements required to successfully implement sustainability in an organisation, including commitment at senior management level, ensuring sustainability is the responsibility of everyone, and breaking down targets for the organisation into ones which are meaningful to each division, subsidiary and department.
The Reporting Framework calls for organisations to link sustainability issues to their overall strategy and for sustainability and conventional financial information to be presented together so that a more complete and balanced picture of a company's performance is given.
It suggests that five key environmental indicators should be reported, including polluting emissions, energy use, water use, waste, and significant use of other finite resources.
BT chief Sir Michael told the audience: "Companies need to be accountable and transparent on these issues. We welcome the framework. It's simple, it's clear and it's practical."
At the end of today's seminar, The Prince thanked the attendees and in particular his fellow speakers for "being prepared to risk helping an old Cambridge graduate with a record of talking to plants and trees".
He said: "But all I can say is that I have learnt a lot from trees and plants over all these years, including the idea of accounting for sustainability!"
He added that the fact they had contributed to the project had been "hugely appreciated".
Click here to read The Prince’s speech.
Click here to visit the Sustainability at Work website.
Click here to visit the Accounting for Sustainability website.