A4S official Rio+20 side event
The Project was set up by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales in 2004. Key successes to date have included:
- The creation of the Accounting Bodies Network in 2008, as part of the International Network, which brings together a powerful grouping of international accounting bodies in order to help spread the message of accounting for sustainability to their members and incorporate sustainability issues into training material. This has been followed by the creation of A4S Wales and A4S Middle East.
- The establishment of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) in 2010, which is leading the development of a global framework for Integrated Reporting. The IIRC is an international cross section of leaders from the corporate, investment, accounting, securities, regulatory, academic and standard-setting sectors as well as civil society. The IIRC has published a draft International Integrated Reporting Framework Outline along with establishing a Pilot Programme, which offers a select group of companies the opportunity to demonstrate global leadership in this emerging field of corporate reporting and has over 80 companies participating from all over the world.
- NatWest, The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project and ICAEW have launched the Finance for the Future Awards to recognize and reward financial leadership that embeds sustainability into businesses and organizations.
- UN Conference on Sustainable Development– A4S held an official side event in June 2012 in collaboration with the International Integrated Reporting Council, The Green Economy Coalition and Stakeholder Forum. This brought further support for a working group to link the processes to develop performance measurement systems and metrics at a global, national and corporate level, which was set up following a meeting held in London on 30th May 2012 hosted by HRH The Prince of Wales.
- Collation and publication of a book of case studies “Practical Insights – A summary of case studies in embedding and reporting sustainability” in June 2010. This research demonstrates how organizations have used accounting for sustainability tools and principles to embed sustainability into their “DNA”.
- The relaunch of the accounting for sustainability community website, established with the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), as a dynamic online community designed to allow organizations, institutions, and individuals committed to the role of accounting for sustainability, to share ideas through online discussion topics, and hear expert opinions through online articles and Q&As.
- Publication of a range of A4S reports and case studies including:
- “Governance & Collaboration: Establishing an ‘International Integrated Reporting Committee’” setting out initial proposals for the creation of an international committee to oversee the development of a connected and integrated approach to corporate reporting
- Launch of Connected Reporting online tool in December 2009 with a related report “Connected Reporting – A practical guide with worked examples”, that provides help and practical guidance to organizations that want to report on the connection between their business strategy and sustainability factors.
- Guidance on how to embed sustainability into decision-making processes, captured through the 2007 Accounting for Sustainability Report and within the Sustainability at Work website (currently undergoing update).
- Development of the Connected Reporting Framework, an approach to reporting that better reflects the link between financial and sustainability performance, driven by the organization’s strategy and the way that it is managed.
- Accounting for Sustainability 2006 research report on the state-of-play of the measurement of reporting of organizational sustainability in the UK and internationally. The report is in three-parts. This output from the Project’s first phase formally launched in 2006 in the presence of senior representatives from government, business and the accounting world including the then Prime Minister, Tony Blair and Chief Executive of BP, Lord Browne.
- Realising Aspirations report which suggested how both better value for money and enhanced sustainability could be obtained from public expenditure.
- A4S has held six annual forum events with speeches from HRH The Prince of Wales, attended by around 200 representatives from the international accounting and business communities, investors, government, academia and civil society. Speakers have included Jeremy Grantham, Jochen Zeitz, The Rt Hon George Osborne MP, Lord Colin Sharman, Professor Mervyn King, Stephen Green, David Blood and Tony Blair. Panelists have included Stephanie Flanders, Justin King, Jonathon Porritt, and Min Zhu.
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