Accounting for Sustainability—Could Cost Accounting Be the Right Tool?

Franco Ernesto Rubino () and Stefania Veltri ()
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Franco Ernesto Rubino: University of Calabria
Stefania Veltri: University of Calabria

A chapter in Accounting, Accountability and Society, 2020, pp 81-91 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The last few decades have witnessed the increasing pressures for organizations to behave in a socially and environmentally responsible fashion, and businesses have started to acknowledge the importance of sustainability, embracing the sustainability rhetoric in their external reporting and in their mission statement. One area that has not yet been investigated in depth is related to the capability of existing corporate accounting systems to measure sustainability. Development of such instrumental sustainability accounting systems will require the accounting profession to step outside its comfort zone and measure and manage external environmental and social impacts. Extending the boundary of analysis beyond the “entity” has implications for both accounting and management control system design. The chapter intends to intervene in the lively debate in literature about the usefulness and capability of corporate accounting systems to address sustainability optimally by taking into consideration positive and negative positions as regards the sustainability of accounting. It also aims to imagine if and how an accounting for sustainability might emerge and what possibilities could arise for accounting in light of a sustainability science approach.

Keywords: Sustainability; Measurement; Literature review; Full-cost accounting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:csrchp:978-3-030-41142-8_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-41142-8_5

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