SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING IS COMING DOWN THE TRACK –HOW READY IS YOUR BUSINESS?

Revd Dr. Tony Bradley, Senior Lecturer in Business Sustainability at Liverpool Hope Business School, discusses the growing importance of sustainability reporting and what the University is doing to support businesses in this area.

With the General Election now in the rear view mirror, we can prepare for how the green business agenda – which was so much part of the early campaigning – surfaces in the new Government’s actual priorities. But, politicians have recognised the significance of business’ engagement with environmental sustainability for at least two decades. Al Gore's seminal work, An Inconvenient Truth (2006), was a turning-point in highlighting the critical intersection between climate issues and economic matters. It marked the former Vice-President’s shift from being a ‘climatechange sceptic’, to becoming a full-on campaigner for the centrality of green issues being a, if not the, main economic focus. Since then, sustainability reporting has rapidly evolved from a niche concern to a central pillar of corporate strategy. With global competition intensifying and the desire for transparency increasing, the importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting cannot be overstated.

More recently, financial luminaries Michael Bloomberg and Mark Carney produced the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (2017). Over the next two years, major sustainability reporting legislation from across the globe will impact a huge number of businesses.

Indeed, in the Eurozone, 2024 has become the pivot year for the extension of sustainability reporting to more than 50,000 companies.

The first batch of European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) was agreed by the European Commission in August 2023. Alongside the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) we’re being propelled into a new era of accounting and reporting on sustainability. And that doesn’t just mean in relation to environmental impacts, but, also, social and governance, and the purposeful values behind a business’ Articles of Association.

This is what we, at Liverpool Hope Business School, have coined ‘quadruple bottom-line accounting’, which is enshrined in our unique Business Sustainability Cycle.

Alongside the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) we’re being propelled into a new era of accounting and reporting on sustainability. And that doesn’t just mean in relation to environmental impacts, but, also, social and governance, and the purposeful values behind a business’ Articles of Association.

Together with global Sustainability Consultancy, Spectreco, we are looking to launch The Transition Academy to help businesses worldwide, as well as in Liverpool City Region, get ready for this new world of sustainability reporting and accounting. But, can’t SMEs avoid all the razzmatazz surrounding ESG, CSRD, IFRS (Integrated Financial Reporting Standards) and the ‘green new deal’?

Possibly, for now.

Many don’t want to. And, even if they do, the extension of this regulatory environment, from the large-scale corporate world, and from Europe to the UK, is coming down the track, over the next 4-5 years.

So, it is time to get ready.

Liverpool Hope Business School is keen to help our city-region’s businesses be at the forefront of sustainability reporting and accounting in the UK.

We’ll do so through an innovative actionresearch project funded by the British Academy and the Leverhulme Trust (BA/LT). This grant supports our SEARCH (Sustainable Economy Action Research Centre at Hope) Centre in mapping the uptake of guidance, education, and training on sustainability reporting by business professionals, owners, and managers here in Liverpool and in Cork, Ireland.

The first phase of this action research will involve completing a five-minute confidential survey on:

• What do you understand business sustainability to be about?

• What have you heard about microcredentials (small chunks of accredited learning on connected topics) for sustainability?

• What preparations are you making for mandatory sustainability reporting and accounting?

If you’d be prepared to complete the short, confidential survey, and/or would like to hear more about Liverpool Hope Business School’s Business Sustainability Cycle, The Transition Academy, and our approach to sustainability education and training, please email Dr Tony Bradley, at bradlet@hope.ac.uk, with the subject line: ‘Coming down the track’.