Sustainable development, corporate social responsibility & accounting

1. Sustainable development, corporate social responsibility & accounting Prof. Jan Bebbington Centre for Social & Environmental Accounting Research St Andrews Sustainability Institute Vice-Chair (Scotland), Sustainable Development Commission

2. Where I am going … • Mixture of: • Ideas from academia • Application of these in applied research settings • With awareness of policy context • Key concepts • Accounting & accountability • Sustainable development • Governance/governmentality • Played out via accounting for sustainable development example

3. We all think we know about accountability …but do we?and if it were ‘easy’ why does it seem so hard?

4. A possible definition “The duty to provide an account (by no means necessarily a financial account) or reckoning of those actions for which one is responsible” Gray, Owen & Adams (1996)

5. All this takes place within a social & regulatory context Principal Instructions Accounts Contract Agent Sanctions Actions or forebear from action

6. Context matters (SD is a context conditioner) Nature of contract between parties is key (& dictates account) Ability to impose sanctions should contract be breached is essential Relative power between parties is of fundamental importance Notions of closeness & absence of accounts Multiple & nested accountability complicates things Accountability is not easy & comfortable Accounts are not only financial ACCOUNTS imply accountability and vice versa Observations & nuance

7. Sustainable development as the context

8. Is this connection possible? Useful? Integration of the scale of issues What would we need to know if an organisation were sustainable? Environmentally Socially Economically CSR vs SD If SD is not a sensible notion for an organisation ... then you end up talking about CSR Responsibility has to be defined (could be linked to SD) … that is appropriate at a corporate level … and know what is not appropriate at that level SD & organisations

9. Governing is … • “any more or less calculated and rational activity, undertaken by a multiplicity of authorities and agencies, employing a variety of techniques and forms of knowledge, that seeks to shape our conduct by working through our desires, aspirations, interests and beliefs, for definite but shifting ends and with a diverse set of relatively unpredictable consequences, effects and outcomes” (Dean, 1999, p 209).

10. Governmentality (Dean 1999)

11. Accounting as a technique & practice • Full cost accounting • Aims to quantify a ‘fuller’ picture of organisational impacts • Environmentally and/or socially focused • Externalities • “when the social or economic activities of one group of persons have an impact on another group and when that impact is not fully accounted for by the first group”

12. A monetized model +ve All figures are in monetary units -ve capitals

13. The Elements of the SAM Total turnover or total cost Social benefit of product/service Benefits via taxation Social benefit of jobs Resources consumed Pollution impacts

14. An Overall Measure – the SAMi SAMi = 25%

15. Summary • Accounting • Discharging accountability • Negotiation about responsibility • Sustainable development as a set of aspirations • Governance • Full cost accounting is one technique • Implies a great deal