How financial accounting is damaging the world (but can help repair it)

Think accounting is dull? Think again. What we accept as ‘true and fair’ in businesses’ accounts is the key to a more just, sustainable future for all of us. Here’s how we make the change.

When you think about the tools at our disposal to address the ecological, social and biodiversity challenges we face today, accounting might not immediately come to mind. And yet it is accounting standards, not science and not public policy, that set out how profit is calculated, which in turn drives investment decisions. What if we demanded that those standards reflect the true cost of business and its consequences?

Unless we look again at these fundamental principles, which have gone under the radar for so long, capital markets will continue to contribute to inequality, nature loss and climate change. What’s remarkable is that we already have in place everything we need for a more just and complete approach to accounting, and forward-thinking businesses are beginning to recognize that.

Jeremy Nicholls – accountant, sustainability professional, historian and activist – sets out a vision for new way of accounting, and it’s one that we can adopt immediately.