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University of Oregon Continuing Education

Accounting for Sustainability: Reporting Principles and Concepts

February 26, 2010
Friday 8:30 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
UO in Portland, White Stag Block 152
Presenter: Stephen Senge

A one-day workshop on the principles and practices of financial reporting, disclosure requirements, and decision making related to the environmental activities of organizations.

Course Description

Over the last decade, many private and public organizations have issued some type of sustainability report. With varying degrees of both clarity and completeness, these reports provide information about an organization's economic, environmental, and social footprints. This professional workshop will present fundamental sustainability accounting concepts for managers, accountants, and other important stakeholders.

Discussing organizational reporting in his 1998 manifesto, Cannibals with Forks, John Elkington commented, "today we think in terms of a 'triple bottom line' focusing on economic prosperity, environmental quality, and. . . social justice." Like many visionaries throughout history, Elkington has provided the rallying cry and left the details to others. In this case, the others are the stakeholders of various private and public sector organizations throughout the world who, over the last decade, have done the hard work of turning Elkington's vision into the science and art of accounting for sustainability.

Often known by its nickname-triple bottom line reporting, sustainability accounting efforts have produced over 10,000 sustainability reports to date. Taken together, these attempts represent the jumble of formats, ideas, and specific measures that one often finds on the conceptual frontier.

The following outline summarizes the workshop's content and focus:

  1. Introduction to the underlying concepts of sustainability accounting.
  2. Activity #1: An initial examination of sustainability reporting.
  3. The Global Reporting Initiative and its impact.
  4. Managerial issues underlying sustainability accounting and reporting.
  5. Activity #2: An analysis of an existing sustainability report.
  6. Recommendations for effective sustainability reporting in today's organizations.

A variety of teaching and learning styles will be employed in order to analyze and synthesize these issues.

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