The Sustainabilist | GREEN RECOVERY
FEATURE
How Can CFOs Drive Sustainability? Organisations must align their organisational and environmental goals, paving the way for a new profession By Doreen Remmen CFO, Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)
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isk is something that every business must deal with, and, as the past 12 months have proven, risk is often due to circumstances beyond our control. December 2019 witnessed one of the biggest Australian bushfires, followed by Indonesian floods in January 2020, a volcanic eruption in the Philippines,
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locust swarms in East Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and epic wildfires in the western United States. And, of course, there is the novel coronavirus pandemic which still grips the world. The resilience of a company in the face of such events depends largely on the sustainability that has been built into its business processes, community relationships, and tangible and intangible assets.
what financial statements show. As much
as 80% of the valuation of a company depends on the worth of its intangible assets. A growing focus on integrated reporting (commonly understood as the merger of financial and nonfinancial reporting) is having a profound impact on the accountancy profession. Historically, accountants have struggled to account for and systematically integrate nonfinancial value into financial reports. That is now changing, as an increasing number of companies have begun to include the monitoring of environmental, social and
