The impact of global warming and other environmental and social issues may be long-term – but the solutions have to start now.

Sustainability is a powerful force that will affect all our lives. Choosing or promoting sustainable practices isn’t just window dressing: it is a question of our very survival.

Sustainable development grew out of a combination of factors. There are enormous environmental dangers facing the world, however, there is also a huge imbalance in the distribution of wealth in the world. It would not be possible to address the environmental issues on their own and retain the current wealth imbalance. There has to be a compromise that allows growth and development to take place, especially in the under-developed and developing nations, but at the same time respects the wellbeing of the environment and local communities. This is what is meant by sustainable development. Sustainability is a combination of financial, social and environmental strategies. They are all important if long-term sustainability is to be achieved.

The 1990s have been labelled by the SustainAbility organisation as the ‘transparency decade’, when a series of major environmental incidents forced companies to come clean in their reporting. It was also the time when triple bottom line reporting was invented. Today there is a plethora of codes, guides and legislation dealing with sustainability issues. One of the benefits of sustainability reporting is that there appears to be a link between social and financial performance. Companies that focus on the social issues tend to improve financial performance.

It is clear that sustainability reporting has a role to play in the future – and it is up to the accountancy profession to guide and assist businesses, governments and communities so that they are able to communicate this critical information. The profession can play a leadership role in sustainability in the areas of measurement, disclosure and verification – three of its core professional roles.

The Professional Accountants in Business Committee (PAIB) of IFAC put it this way:
"The PAIB has a role to play in understanding, demonstrating and achieving the efficiencies that organizations can gain from sustainable business practices. The pursuit of sustainability depends on the generation, analysis, reporting on robust and accurate information (both financial and non-financial). Hence, it is important that the PAIB gain an understanding of the concepts of sustainability and the challenges it poses in achieving long-term growth in shareholder value or value for money".