To ensure long-term financial success, businesses need to recognize that they are operating within a larger biophysical and social environment, and respect the limits and processes governing the sustainability of the larger ecosystem as the global economy expands rapidly toward the carrying capacity of the planet. Consequently, firms, especially the large multinational corporations, are being challenged to behave in an environmentally sustainable and socially responsive manner while maintaining and improving shareholder value. Stakeholders are soliciting information on the environmental and social impacts of business operations as well as on measures to benchmark corporate social and environmental performance in different industrial contexts, while investors demand disclosure of material environmental risks and related compliance costs and liabilities. Firm managers continually seek information to improve the triple bottom line performance and to make informed trade-offs among often-conflicting financial, environmental, and social objectives. As a result, the accounting profession is being called upon to...
