Social and Environmental Accounting: Guest Lecture from Sheffield University Management School UK

Social and Environmental Accounting: Guest Lecture from Sheffield University Management School UK

Rifqi Kartiko Fathianto – International Office FEB UI

Postgraduate in Accounting Science Program (PPIA) FEB UI organized a guest lecture on Thursday (18/4). Prof. Ataur Rahman Belal, the Professor of Accounting at The University of Sheffield, was invited to talk about “The Updates in Social and Environmental Accounting Research”. The participant of the lecture is limited to Department of Accounting scholars –including Dr. Ancella Hermawan, CA., MBA. as the Head of Department of Accounting– and postgraduate students of accounting science. Yulianti Abbas, Ph.D, The Head of PPIA FEB UI, was given the opportunity to open the session with her remarks.

“Accounting is not only about financial reporting”, said Prof. Belal. Social and environment accounting is included to the science of accounting. Corporate’s social responsibility programs is mandatory to be reported as well, thus the sustainable reporting and disclosure is produced to maintain the accountability of the company. Although there’s no global standard of sustainable reporting and disclosure, there are several frameworks that can be used by a company to write the report, such as GRI sustainability reporting standards, integrated reporting frameworks, and SDG

The sustainable reporting and disclosure at least covering four aspects: 1) why company have to do sustainable reporting and disclosure, 2) for whom the sustainable reporting and disclosure is intended, 3) what issues that are discussed, and 4) how the sustainable reporting and disclosure is compiled. Social and environmental accounting involves qualitative-narative information, so it is not always about financial information. Some recent topics that are widely discussed about social and environmental accounting including accounting for human rights, carbon accounting, accounting for water, and accounting for SDGs.

The visit by University of Sheffield also designed to explore any possibilites for a joint collaboration between FEB UI and The University of Sheffield. With this guest lecture, we hope it could be the stepping stone for the collaboration of FEB UI and The University of Sheffield.