A Student’s Perspective on Sustainability

Iinitially majored in accounting because I hated change. A basic introduction to debits and credits juxtaposed the chaos of my adolescent brain. It provided an attractive solution to the question that followed me from family barbecue to night out: “What do you want to major in?” Learning about the consistency with which GAAP governed financial statements, I mistakenly thought that it would function similarly in my life. To my surprise, the accounting profession’s ability to evolve would come to be my favorite thing about it.

After becoming an accounting major my sophomore year of college, my educational focus remained on the basics. I enjoyed the structure and rigidity of a depreciation table as much as the next student, but as I began to imagine myself as an accountant, I soon felt something missing. My understanding of a career was that it represented a subject, industry, or field, that one felt so passionate about that they could participate in it for the majority of their adult life. With my entire career ahead of me, it was important that something I would dedicate so much time to reflected my values and drive to help others. With my initially limited perspective on the field, I couldn’t help but wonder, “Was the entire accounting industry just creating journal entries?” As I made my way through the major, I learned the answer for myself.

Throughout college, I watched the profession grapple with concepts previously foreign to the field—the use of AI, marijuana accounting regulations, and most notably, sustainability accounting. Accounting is a profession known for job security, but what establishes its credibility as such is that as the world evolves, accounting evolves alongside it. When there is some sort of innovation, rules to govern the presentation and disclosures of these matters emerge to ensure the profession stays current and helps clients adapt to the modern business environment.

The principles of sustainability accounting have existed for far longer than its recent emergence as a business buzzword. Excluding nuanced objectives, theories pertinent to the concept date back to research in the 1970s (Carlos Larrinaga and Jan Bebbington, “The Pre-History of Sustainability Reporting: A Constructivist Reading,” Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 34, no. 9, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/ycxxu3jp). Even before the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, the profession’s major transformations occurred as a result of changing investor needs and new regulation requirements. For example, in 1992, the SEC passed the “Tabulation Rule,” which required public companies to present the compensation of their highest paid executives in table form, as opposed to narration (Release 33-7032, https://tinyurl.com/52k6jjku). The purpose was to “make compensation disclosure clearer, more comprehensive and more useful to shareholders” (Release 33-7032, https://tinyurl.com/52k6jjku). This change was driven by investors and ultimately proposed by the SEC to provide a more complete understanding of a company’s performance. This is comparable to the principles guiding sustainability accounting today, which strive to depict a company’s performance over multiple dimensions to assess its ability to create long-term value. The public’s desire for accountability and the profession’s ability to deliver has allowed accounting to exist at the forefront of market transformations. The role of the accounting profession is clear: promote public confidence through independent verification of financial reporting. Because public confidence has come to include sustainability reporting, as these standards become increasingly important, it is my duty as an accountant to adapt.

As a result, I began to develop a new definition for the concept, one that was meaningful to me. I see sustainability accounting as the newest way that accountants can serve the public and fulfill their role of certifying credibility. It provides a sense of purpose beyond financial statements and offers a contemporary lens for corporate transparency. Most significantly, sustainability accounting emphasizes my personal values of care and integrity by helping corporations use their impact for the global good. Integrating sustainability into my education has yielded an opportunity to make a difference, defying traditional assumptions of the accounting profession. Regardless of where my career takes me, my studies will have established these guiding ethical principles that will remain applicable for the duration of my learning, career, and life.

I received my higher education during a time when the world’s, and more specifically my generation’s, priorities in investing had shifted. I am part of Gen Z, which encompasses individuals born between 1997 and 2012. People my age began to focus on supporting companies that promote long-term value for their employees and environment and accurately disclose their efforts to do so. Research shows that these initiatives to create long-term value have become a top priority for my generation, and nearly half of Gen Zers (47%) are interested in making a positive societal impact (“The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2019,” https://tinyurl.com/f4u7kzhx). As part of the generation spearheading this movement, I know my sentiments are echoed. This is further evident in the fact that Gen Z believes climate change is the primary global concern—above education, unemployment, and even crime (Deloitte 2019). As someone belonging to both the generation driving the change and the profession responsible for reporting it, I wanted to be at the forefront of the movement. The more I learned about sustainability accounting, the broader my ideas about the field got. I began to understand that the profession wasn’t limited like the traditional stereotypes. Sustainability accounting offered a way to incorporate the concepts I was learning about with something that could transform my future job into a career, and I wasn’t alone in wanting to do so.

I maintained my interest in sustainability accounting throughout my academic career. I completed various projects about the subject, such as investigating the existence of the many standards setting bodies, the implications of growing disclosure requirements on internal audits, and the importance of sustainability accounting in modern curricula. Through class presentations and research reports, sustainability accounting became the focus of my education. A primary aim of higher education is to encourage new ways of thinking and challenge assumptions, which certainly happened with me. I was initially attracted to the profession based on the fact that any career assessment I took in high school boldly proclaimed “accountant” as my perfect job, and my strengths were quite literally listed in every job description I read. It was sustainability accounting, however, that made me passionate about the field.

Regardless of my position or title throughout my career, my view of the profession will always be shaped by the impact of sustainability accounting. Sustainability is founded on transparency and disclosure, which I believe correspond directly to the ethical principles of accountancy.

As I embrace this change, I urge others to do the same. It is members of Gen Z, currently in the education system, who are the leading advocates for sustainability accounting education at the granular level. We are taking charge of our careers by pursuing knowledge of something set to change the landscape of the profession. This does not have to be the case, however. Sustainability accounting has relevance across industries, positions, and companies, simply because it is what the public requires of us. As accountants, we must maintain the public trust we’ve worked so hard to build and aid in this reporting that will benefit our planet. Accountants provide credibility, and it is up to Gen Z to continue this tradition as we enter the workforce. Starting with strengthening this link to education, we can expand the generational knowledge of sustainability accounting. Controversial as it is to some, a change in reporting priorities is here, and it is our duty as future accountants to lead it.

Now, less than a year out of my graduate program, I work in tax. This allows me to see first-hand the implications sustainability accounting has on my role specifically, as well as the profession more broadly. It is for this reason that my long-term career goals include the pursuit of sustainability accounting. I now understand a career to be an amalgamation of the knowledge, experience, and difference one brings to a profession—which is why I know I want sustainability accounting to be a part of mine.