Highlights from the ‘Beyond Accounting – The Sustainable Accountant’ Event

Speakers at our Beyond Accounting Conference share their insights and thought leadership.

By DAVEN ROBERTS

In partnership with Chartered Accountants Ireland, CAW Network USA hosted our third 2021 Beyond Accounting Conference on June 17th. Beyond Accounting – The Sustainable accountant served as a virtual event to inform finance professionals about the impacts that sustainable reporting has on their businesses. As the accounting industry rapidly shifts its focus to include ESG and sustainability, new skills are required for accountants globally. The same is true of companies at large, as they push to “get to net zero.”

Below are highlights from each presentation that cover a broad range of topics related to sustainable reporting. Take a surface look at shining moments from the conference and if you find yourself wanting more, you can find the whole webinar here: The Sustainable Accountant.

Gerard Reid, Co-founder and Partner at Alexa Capital, believes the state of our world is currently at an inflection point, and is eager to advocate the trend towards a more sustainable society and stop harming the ecosystems that house us. The biggest question then becomes – how can we make that happen as quickly as possible? Join Gerard as he explains how understanding the real challenges help accountants take their first steps on the road to net zero.

As sustainability reporting becomes more important for companies and a greater common practice in the industry, we see more and more companies jumping through hoops to produce a responsibility report, yet they may not have the proper data to back it up. George Richards, Associate Partner at KPMG UK, acknowledges this issue and advises companies on how they can avoid “bad data” as they step into the world of sustainable reporting.

CEO of the International Federation of Accountants, Kevin Dancey, concluded the conference by sharing his knowledge and experience with the audience. He explains the complexity of non-financial reporting where there are many stakeholders with varying wants and needs. To ease the adoption of sustainability reporting IFAC has condensed the process into two building blocks that every global company can make use of. Listen as he explains further.

Brian Keegan, Director of Public Affairs with Chartered Accountants Ireland, interviewed Kevin Dancey in the second session of the conference. Brian shares his thoughts on the building block method put forth by IFAC and connects the idea to dual materiality. Watch as he dives deeper into the two ideas and shares a European perspective on the topic.