Six Capitals, or Can Accountants Save the Planet?: Rethinking Capitalism for the Twenty-First Century

Six Capitals, or Can Accountants Save the Planet?: Rethinking Capitalism for the Twenty-First Century
Author: Jane Gleeson-White
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2015-02-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 039324668X

A timely and fascinating account of the revolution going on in the world of finance from the acclaimed author of Double Entry. This is the story of a twenty-first-century revolution being led by the most unlikely of rebels: accountants. Only the second revolution in accounting since double-entry bookkeeping began, it is of seismic proportions, driven by the 2008 financial crash and our ongoing environmental crisis. The changes it will wreak are profound and far-reaching and not only will transform the way the world does business but also will alter the nature of capitalism. While the wealth of nations and corporations has been vital to the global economy, increasingly the world is coming to realize that such endless growth is limited by the earth's resources and comes at a huge price to the planet and to human well-being. It simply cannot be sustained. This revolution demands that we go beyond merely accounting for traditional financial and industrial capital and take account of the benefits and detriments to the natural world and society. It urges us to include four new categories of wealth: intellectual (such as intellectual property), human (skills, productivity, and health), social and relationship (shared norms and values), and natural (environment). Making them part of our financial statements and GDP figures may be the only way to address the many calamities we face. Just two years ago this revolution seemed idealistic and unlikely. Today it is quickly unfolding. In 2012, the sea-change year, two key initiatives took root: an international movement to transform how corporate accounting is calculated and the rise of incorporating the effects on the environment to the accounting of national and global economies. Six Capitals tells the story of this coming new age in capitalism, evaluating its promise and the disaster that lies ahead if it is not implemented.

Six Capitals Updated Edition

Six Capitals Updated Edition
Author: Jane Gleeson-White
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2020-04-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1760874213

FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED 'A fascinating read. Gleeson-White artfully captivates the reader as she explores the fast-evolving language, metrics, actors and laws that are profoundly reshaping "capital" in the 21st century.' KATE RAWORTH, author of Doughnut Economics Climate change is here and capitalism is implicated: it's programmed to privilege profit and growth over human communities and the living earth. We need to change this system - and we need to do it now. Six Capitals charts the rise of four movements designed to overthrow capitalism as we know it: multi-capital accounting, for society, nature and profit; the push for a new corporation legally bound to benefit nature and society while making a profit; ecosystem accounting for nations; and legal rights for nature, which resonate with indigenous earth-centred laws.These movements are critical for the future of human life on this planet. Together they override the profit-driven modern corporation, the growth-driven nation state and the legal status of the natural world as lifeless property. Multi-capital and ecosystem accounting, benefit corporations and the rights of nature movement are here to stay. Six Capitals tells their story, from their first emergence in the postwar era to today. This revised, updated edition is for the new generations of business leaders, entrepreneurs, activists, accountants, economists, scientists, farmers, food growers and distributors, teachers, parents, politicians, bureaucrats and concerned citizens everywhere. 'broaden financial reports to include measures of social and environmental issues and just watch how it changes the behaviour of business people. Gleeson-White makes a good case for the success of her unlikely revolutionaries.' ROSS GITTINS, Sydney Morning Herald 'Six Capitals reveals the critical role of accounting in reimagining the way we do business and make policy in the twenty-first century. It's time for everyone to pay attention.' CARL OBST, lead author, United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting

Six Capitals Or Can Accountants Save the Planet

Six Capitals Or Can Accountants Save the Planet
Author: Jane Gleeson-white
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-02-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0393246671

A timely and fascinating account of the revolution going on in the world of finance from the acclaimed author of Double Entry. This is the story of a twenty-first-century revolution being led by the most unlikely of rebels: accountants. Only the second revolution in accounting since double-entry bookkeeping began, it is of seismic proportions, driven by the 2008 financial crash and our ongoing environmental crisis. The changes it will wreak are profound and far-reaching and not only will transform the way the world does business but also will alter the nature of capitalism. While the wealth of nations and corporations has been vital to the global economy, increasingly the world is coming to realize that such endless growth is limited by the earth's resources and comes at a huge price to the planet and to human well-being. It simply cannot be sustained. This revolution demands that we go beyond merely accounting for traditional financial and industrial capital and take account of the benefits and detriments to the natural world and society. It urges us to include four new categories of wealth: intellectual (such as intellectual property), human (skills, productivity, and health), social and relationship (shared norms and values), and natural (environment). Making them part of our financial statements and GDP figures may be the only way to address the many calamities we face. Just two years ago this revolution seemed idealistic and unlikely. Today it is quickly unfolding. In 2012, the sea-change year, two key initiatives took root: an international movement to transform how corporate accounting is calculated and the rise of incorporating the effects on the environment to the accounting of national and global economies. Six Capitals tells the story of this coming new age in capitalism, evaluating its promise and the disaster that lies ahead if it is not implemented.

Environmental Disclosure

Environmental Disclosure
Author: Luigi Lepore
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2022-12-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000829138

This book provides a description of the state of the art on environmental disclosure, illustrating the key theoretical issues, the regulatory frameworks, the main standards developed and reporting the results of an empirical analysis on the environmental disclosure released by listed firms. Luigi Lepore and Sabrina Pisano begin by analysing the origin and evolution of environmental disclosure. They go on to provide a description of the main theoretical frameworks used by scholars, explaining the conceptual basis of each theory and describing how the specific theory has been used to explain the company’s decision to release environmental disclosure. The second part of the book highlights the role and evolution of the European regulatory frameworks, emphasizing the transition from voluntary to mandatory disclosure. The book ends by providing a picture of the evolution of sustainability reporting practices in European Union nations over the past two decades. This book investigates the critical issues and new directions in environmental disclosure, which are currently under examination by regulators and standard setters. It will therefore be of great interest to academics and students working in the areas of business and sustainability.

The Routledge Handbook of Integrated Reporting

The Routledge Handbook of Integrated Reporting
Author: Charl de Villiers
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 485
Release: 2020-05-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000071340

This timely handbook provides a current and comprehensive examination of integrated reporting, both practical and research-based. It offers insights and different perspectives from more than 60 authors, including representatives of the International Integrated Reporting Council, Integrated Reporting Committee of South Africa, professional bodies and audit firms, as well as leading academics in the fields of integrated reporting, sustainability reporting and corporate social responsibility. This collected work provides an in-depth review of the development of integrated reporting, with a focus on the interpretation and guidance provided by the International Integrated Reporting Council. It encourages the development of new thinking and research topics in the area of integrated reporting (such as links between integrated reporting and reports focused on financial and corporate social responsibility matters), as well as showcasing how integrated reporting issues are seen and practiced in different parts of the world. The chapters include reviews of the most recent research, practitioner viewpoints, conceptual pieces, case studies and disclosure analyses. Accessible and engaging, this handbook will be an invaluable overview for those new to the field or those who are interested in ensuring they are up to date with its developments, as well as those who are concerned with how to construct an integrated report.

Handbook of Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness

Handbook of Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness
Author: Steven Stanley
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2018-07-20
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 3319765388

This handbook explores the multifaceted ethical dimensions of mindfulness, from early Buddhist sources to present-day Western interpretations of mindfulness. It takes a modern ethical approach to the study of mindfulness, and traces contemporary mindfulness practice from solitary journey to the global whole. Noted practitioners, teachers, scholars, and other professionals lend diverse perspectives to the debate over the moral content of mindfulness and its status as religious, secular, or post-secular practice. Chapters offer new views on the roots of mindfulness in Buddhist moral teachings, ethical mindfulness in interpersonal relationships, and the necessity of ethics in mindfulness-based education and therapy. Chapters also discuss current debates concerning the ethics of mindfulness across the applied fields of education and pedagogy, business, economics, and the environment. Topics featured in this handbook include: · Mindfulness as the true foundation of a naturally ethical life. · Mindfulness and its impact on emotional life, interpersonal relationships, and forgiveness. · How Buddhist ethics informs spiritual practice across the three main vehicles (yanas) of Buddhism and its relation to mindfulness. · “McMindfulness”, or the mass marketization and commodification of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs). · How an ethic of interdependence formed by Buddhist principles and mindfulness practices can help address the environmental crisis. The Handbook of Ethical Foundations of Mindfulness is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/professionals, and graduate students in psychology, complementary and alternative medicine, and social work as well as occupational and rehabilitation therapy, nursing, philosophy, business management, and teachers of Buddhism and meditation.

Intergenerational Wellbeing and Public Policy

Intergenerational Wellbeing and Public Policy
Author: Girol Karacaoglu
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2019-01-28
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9811361045

The distinctive contribution of this book is the formulation of an integrated social, environmental, and economic framework for public policy. This contribution is realised through investigations and conclusions in the following four domains: a formal stylised model that provides a platform for an integrated approach to public policy; a policy-informing simulation model that can be used to operationalise the public policy insights proposed in the stylised model; the implications of introducing fundamental (or radical) uncertainty and complexity into the policy framework; and the use of viability theory to demonstrate how one can think of and implement public policy in an uncertain and complex world, when the focus of policy needs to shift to building resilience to systemic risks. The book’s stylised model is constructed by weaving together threads from the wellbeing, human needs, complex systems, sustainable development, endogenous economic growth, directed technical change, and credit-based-money literatures. Throughout, the perspective is that of a policy adviser to a "wellbeing state", as distinct from a "welfare state". The key linkages or relationships in the model are supported by empirical evidence that draws on the wider literature in related fields.

Implementing Integrated Reporting

Implementing Integrated Reporting
Author: Cristiana Bernardi
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 94
Release: 2020-02-29
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030111938

Sustainability, the environment, corporate accountability, social justice, integration – these are the buzzwords of our century. This book takes readers on a journey through the landscape of standard-setting giants and corporate reporting paradigms through the eyes of two companies that have taken very different paths toward integrated thinking. Both stories provide new insights into the transition to integrated reporting, as envisaged by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), and how integrated reporting is reshaping our views on transparency. However, the top-down approach adopted in studies of integrated reporting in practice has left many questions unanswered: Is it effective? How does it evolve into established practice? Is it just another management fad? This bottom-up critique answers all these questions and one more: Could integrated reporting become the corporate reporting norm? We shall see. Given its depth of coverage, the book appeals to IIRC academic community, participants in integrated reporting networks, and others interested in integrated reporting.

De Gruyter Handbook of Sustainable Development and Finance

De Gruyter Handbook of Sustainable Development and Finance
Author: Timothy Cadman
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 706
Release: 2022-09-20
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 311073348X

The De Gruyter Handbook of Sustainable Development and Finance explores the difficult and challenging issues confronting society and the environment, in the contexts of unprecedented climate change, bio-diversity loss and the global pandemic. In this seminal text exploring a wide range of topics, and in the devastating wake of COVID-19, scholars and practitioners analyse the effectiveness of current and proposed actions to build a sustainable future, and the public and private finance necessary to prevent an impending planetary catastrophe. The first section of the handbook introduces readers to the origins and evolution of sustainable development. An examination of public and private finance follows in the next two sections, presented from the perspectives of authors from both ‘developed’ and ‘developing’ countries. Climate change, one of the largest sectors of finance for sustainable development, is investigated in detail, as is the new and emerging development frontier, the ‘blue’ economy of the world’s oceans. Suitable for students, policymakers and the public at large, the handbook highlights the lessons learned and points the way forward for sustainable development and finance in the wake of the global pandemic, and the challenges to come.

Sustainability Accounting, Management Control and Reporting

Sustainability Accounting, Management Control and Reporting
Author: Pierre Baret
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 299
Release: 2022-08-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1000629198

Sustainability Accounting, Management Control and Reporting: A European Perspective traces a picture of innovative performance measurement tools and approaches to drive organizations to implement their shared value and sustainability strategy, considering different perspectives around accounting, managerial control and reporting. In recent years, organizations managing their responsible approach with relevance and pressure from stakeholders and regulations has proven to be a major challenge. During the first two decades of the 21st century, many companies have reached a real maturity in this area and have deployed coherent responsible approaches that are integrated into their overall strategy. It is now a matter of steering these responsible approaches from an accounting and managerial standpoint, but also of reporting on them. It requires the simultaneous use of comprehensive accounting, controlling and reporting tools. This book provides an innovative perspective on sustainable management control, comprehensive accounting and integrated reporting, presenting the most recent proposals and the main critical issues. Aimed at researchers, academics, managers, business leaders and advanced students, the book will be especially valuable to those in the fields of corporate social responsibility, strategic management, and accounting.