The Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee of the  International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has developed a comprehensive Sustainability Framework to support professional accountants and their organizations in integrating a sustainable way of thinking and working in all business processes.  The Framework illustrates how a commitment to sustainability can help to further improve an organization’s products or services, motivate its people, lower its costs and enhance its reputation.

Designed from four different perspectives – business strategy, internal management, financial investors, and other stakeholders – the new Framework challenges conventional ways of thinking about economic, social and environmental achievements. It also promotes the injection of sustainability leadership into the full management cycle, from making and executing strategic decisions to reporting on performance to all stakeholders.

The Sustainability Framework recognizes the importance of the three main dimensions of sustainability: economic viability, social responsibility, and environmental responsibility, as well as their interconnectivity and is designed to provide the means and motivation for professional accountants to address sustainability issues with greater vigor.

IFAC’s Sustainability Framework is a web-based tool that allows users to easily navigate those sustainability issues that are most important to their immediate roles and to select and use those examples of good sustainability practice that can work in their organizations.

The Web-based Framework, which is available for free online from the Professional Accountants in Business section of the IFAC Web site, will be subject to ongoing review and development and new links and references to good practice will be provided over time.  To help the development process, IFAC welcomes feedback from accountants and others on how the Framework presents the field of sustainability and the particular role of accountants in facilitating and supporting sustainability and sustainable development. Comments can be sent to Stathis Gould, Senior Technical Manager, PAIB Committee at stathisgould AT ifac dot ORG.

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Author: Tracey de Morsella (323 Articles)

Tracey de Morsella started her career working as an editor for US Technology Magazine. She used that experience to launch Delaware Valley Network, a publication for professionals in the Greater Philadelphia area. Years later, she used the contacts and resources she acquired to work in executive search specializing in technical and diversity recruitment. She has conducted recruitment training seminars for Wachovia Bank, the Department of Interior and the US Postal Service. During this time, she also created a diversity portal called The Multicultural Advantage and published the Diversity Recruitment Advertising Toolkit, a directory of recruiting resources for human resources professionals. Her career and recruitment articles have appeared in numerous publications and web portals including Woman Engineer Magazine, Monster.com, About.com Job Search Channel, Workplace Diversity Magazine, Society for Human Resource Management web site, NSBE Engineering Magazine, HR.com, and Human Resource Consultants Association Newsletter. Her work with technology professionals drew her to pursuing training and work in web development, which led to a stint at Merrill Lynch as an Intranet Manager. In March, she decided to combine her technical and career management expertise with her passion for the environment, and with her husband, launched The Green Economy Post, a blog providing green career information and covering the impact of the environment, sustainable building, cleantech and renewable energy on the US economy. Her sustainability articles have appeared on Industrial Maintenance & Plant Operation, Chem.Info,FastCompany and CleanTechies.