With the Glasgow Climate Change Conference (COP 26) coming up in early November, carbon emissions and sustainability are again hitting the headlines.

Sustainability is an area of huge potential for chartered accountants. Accountants will have an important role to play in forging more sustainable supply chains and processes, doing the reporting involved with carbon accounting, factoring in climate risks for business, and recording progress on sustainability targets.

In Acuity’s Oct-Nov 2021 issue, we explore the opportunities for accountants on the front line of change.

Sustainability is an opportunity

In “The planet is counting on you”, we look at how business operations are transforming and what this means for the finance function.

Matthew Lunn FCA, a PwC Australia partner and Australian ESG assurance leader, sees sustainability forging new career paths for finance professionals.

“Now accountants and CFOs are responsible for more than a balance sheet and a P&L [profit and loss statement]. There’s potentially a lot more focus on a lot more numbers to be accounted for and assured, and a proliferation of different sustainability frameworks against which they might report,” he says.

It’s not all about jobs in the future, though; there’s a lot of activity happening now.

Woolworths’ Jason Lowe CA and Jomo Owusu CA, Infrastructure Advisory director at EY (shown on this issue’s cover), share their experience landing a 10-year power purchase agreement for Woolworths that will avoid almost 158,000 tonnes of carbon emissions annually.

Charles Rau FCA, from BDO Gisborne, explains how he’s used his 810ha Matawai Deer Park as a proof of concept for how farmers calculate and mitigate emissions.

Also in this issue

Also in this issue, Acuity unpacks some of the reasons for the record inflow of funds to ESG-friendly investments in the past year in “The rise of responsible investing”.

We interview former Macquarie Group executive Bill Moss AO on adaptation in a post-pandemic world and talk to current Westpac CFO Michael Rowland FCA about his life a year into the job.

Finally, we survey some of the online tools that automate reporting for clients – Spotlight Reporting, Fathom, Futrli and more. These clever apps save accountants time and deliver actionable business insights, but what one works best for what client? Find out in the latest issue of Acuity.

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