Discuss the issues raised in the above excerpts.

 Discuss the issues raised in the above excerpts. Include your views on the role that the accounting profession can play in the demonstration of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development. Also, identify any problems that the profession may encounter in this process.

Accountants might not be the last hope for the world’s ecosystems but they contribute significantly towards their conservation. This is mainly achieved through sustainability reporting, which enables organizations to monitor the impact of their economic activities on the environment. A notable step towards sustainability reporting is the adoption of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which provides a comprehensive sustainability reporting framework that facilitates greater organizational transparency. The framework, which includes Sustainability Reporting Guidelines prescribes the Standard Disclosures and Principles that organizations can use to report their economic, social, and environmental performance and impacts (GRI,  2015). Because they are required to produce a sustainability report at the end of each financial year, organizations are prompted to engage in sustainable supply chain management, which entails the pursuit of sustainability objectives through the purchasing and supply process, incorporating social, economic and environmental elements.

Sustainability reporting is a broad term synonymous with other terms such as corporate responsibility reporting and triple bottom line that generally refer to reporting on social, economic and environmental impacts of an organization (GRI, 2011). This practice has been in existence for at least two decades now, only it has not received adequate attention from several stakeholders who cannot fathom that accountants are also capable of engaging in environmental conservation. The truth of the matter is that many accountants are currently making deliberate efforts to ensure that they provide a balanced and reasonable representation of the sustainability performance of their organizations. The individual contribution of the accounting body towards environmental conservation is invaluable because accountants are in a unique position to curb environmental pollution at its roots. It is worth noting that large multinational corporations in the mining industry are perhaps the major contributors of environmental pollution owing to the scale of their operations. If accountants can significantly reduce the rate at which these corporations are polluting the environment, then there is a very high likelihood that they are indeed the last hope for the world’s ecosystems.

Basing on the GRI reporting framework, sustainability reports help organizations to disclose results and outcomes that took place within a given reporting period in relation to the organization’s strategy, commitments and management approach (GRI, 2013). These reports serve a myriad of purposes including, benchmarking and assessing the sustainability performance of the organization, demonstrating how the organization affects and is affected by expectations about sustainable development and facilitating a comparison of the performance of different sections within an organization and the organization as a whole in relation to other organizations. In essence, the GRI Guidelines offer Standard Disclosures, Reporting Principles and an Implementation Manual to assist organizations in preparing sustainability reports irrespective of their size, sector or geographical location. The guidelines also provide an international reference for organizations that intend to disclose their governance approach and the social, economic and environmental impacts of their operations. In a nut shell, full disclosure of a company’s operations helps to enhance transparency and promote ethical corporate cultures.

According to Transparency International (2010), accounting plays a critical role in reducing the overexploitation of natural resources by unscrupulous business practitioners and corrupt government officials who only seek to amass individual wealth at the expense of societal welfare. Accounting particularly helps in ensuring that all government revenues arising from the extraction of natural resources are disclosed hence discouraging the abuse of power and illegal exploitation of  natural resources. Moreover, the accounting practice is governed by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), which sets accounting standards for at least 110 countries across the globe. As such, this body has the capacity to reduce environmental pollution on a global scale and promote socially responsible management of natural resource wealth.

On the other end of the spectrum, some critics believe that accounting professionals still have a long way to go before they can claim to have made any significant contributions towards environmental conservation.  Watts (2010) discussion revolves around the various efforts that have been made by the