Initiatives
The Prince of Wales's Accounting for Sustainability Project
The Prince of Wales has long been concerned that the world will continue to live off capital rather than income, and what we enjoy today will be at the expense of our children and grandchildren, unless practical and robust systems are developed to enable broader and longer-term factors to be taken into account more effectively in accounting and decision-making.
Fortunately, there is now greater awareness of the need for “sustainability”, considering what we do, not just in terms of ourselves and today, but also in terms of others and tomorrow.
Commissions and committees have been established, and policies and strategies developed and put into practice by the Government and companies; however, the translation of this aspiration into effective action is often inhibited by the lack of new “sustainability systems and processes”.
The Prince of Wales established his Accounting for Sustainability Project to address this issue: to provide practical guidance and tools to help ensure that sustainability is not just talked about but becomes an integral part of organisations’ day-to-day operations. The Project focused on developing systems to help organisations take into account, and report, the wider social and environmental costs of their actions.
With contributions from over 150 public and private sector organisations, the Accounting for Sustainability Project came forward with two practical and innovative tools to help organisations meet the challenge of the sustainable revolution.
The first, a website resource providing guidance, systems and examples of good practice, which went live on the 12th December 2007 at www.sustainabilityatwork.org.uk. The website is a free resource for public and private organisations.
The second, a 'Connected Reporting Framework', proposes a new approach for reporting an organisation's sustainability more clearly, concisely and comparably. This framework, along with a detailed report on both the embedding and reporting of sustainability can be found as a download on the above website.
Further development of the Connected Reporting Framework is being taken forward by the Consultative Committee of Accountancy Bodies continuing to work as part of The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Project. The Sustainability At Work website continues to be developed, enhanced and updated.
The Prince of Wales said: "The recommendations of my Accounting for Sustainability Project 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".