July 2010

Accounting rules could force businesses to disclose environmental impact

From Guardian.co.uk.

A new initiative by regulators may call on firms to publish information about their social and environmental impacts.

Companies could be asked to publish details of their environmental and social impacts alongside their financial accounts under new rules being discussed with the organisations that set accounting standards.

News of the initiative – which would mean that businesses have to account for the impacts they have on local water quality, plants and animals – emerged as a major report for the UN is published today. It warns that companies are causing vast damage to the "living fabric of this planet", raising threats to society and their own profits, but also that the business opportunities to make money from improving the environment are forecast to quadruple over the next decade.

"This is about all businesses," said Josh Bishop, author of the report and chief economist for the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. "People think of primary industries: agriculture, forests, fisheries, maybe mining, oil and gas. But we try to make clear things in this report interest also manufacturing, retail and financial services, tourism, accountancy."

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