Competition aims to promote debate about sustainability
ICAS has announced details of a £5,000 essay competition designed to promote debate about sustainability.
The competition, sponsored by Grant Thornton, is designed to increase awareness of environmental sustainability and the role that the accountancy profession has to play in this important subject.
Chartered Accountants and CA students are invited to write a 1500 word essay on the following subject.
“Accountants learn to measure financial performance and report on company activity. These skills place them at the centre of sustainability discussions in companies as the business world reacts to the environmental and energy challenges over the next decades. How should environmental sustainability in companies be measured and what role might accountants play?"
First prize in the competition is £3,000, with £750 available for second place and £250 for third. There is also an additional £1,000 prize available to the best essay from an entrant aged 25 or under. The competition will be judged by a panel chaired by Sir David Tweedie.
David Wood, Executive Director of Technical Policy and Services at ICAS, said: “There is a growing understanding in business that effective management of sustainability issues can have a significant impact on corporate profitability and value, as well as being the right thing to do.
“We want the accountancy profession to be to the fore in discussing the social, environmental and business cases for sustainability.”
Traditionally seen as being more of a concern for larger companies rather than small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs), sustainability is taking a new universal significance.
“ICAS conducted a recent survey which highlighted only 13 per cent of smaller organisations currently have a sustainability policy compared to 69 per cent of those larger businesses with a turnover greater than £6.5m,” said Wood.
“But this is changing rapidly. All businesses will start to feel the pressure to adopt more sustainable practices and to tell their clients about these practices.”
Grant Thornton’s Nathan Goode said, “The sustainability drive is growing in importance, from corporate reporting, to resource and energy concerns, to board-room agendas.
“Following last year’s tabled global treaty at the Global Climate Change Conference - and to subsequently commit to an outcome with legal force - business must give this area more thought.
“The role of SMEs in the debate is also important – how can a balance be struck between the move toward sustainability and not wishing to overburden SMEs with regulation?
“We hope this competition will provide innovative thought and further demonstrate how sustainability issues can be incorporated by the accountancy profession and its clients.”
Essays should be emailed to Sustainabilityprizeessay@icas.org.uk before midday, 23 March 2012. Full details are available on the ICAS website www.icas.org.uk/sustainabilityprizeessay
~Ends~
Notes to Editorsview
About ICAS
ICAS is a professional body for around 19,000 world-class business men and women who work in the UK and in more than 100 countries around the world. Our members have all achieved the internationally recognised and respected CA qualification (Chartered Accountant). We are an educator, examiner, regulator, and thought leader. Almost two thirds of our working membership work in business, many leading some of the UK’s and the world’s great companies. The others work in accountancy practices ranging from the Big Four in the City to the small practitioner in rural areas of the country. We currently have around 3,000 students striving to become the next generation of CAs under the tutelage of our expert staff and members. We regulate our members and their firms. We represent our members on a wide range of issues in accountancy, finance and business and seek to influence policy in Europe and the UK, always acting in the public interest.
ICAS is the first professional body for accountants and was created by Royal Charter in 1854.
We are a member of The Global Accounting Alliance (GAA) – an alliance of the world’s leading professional accountancy bodies, which was formed in 2005. The GAA is intended to promote quality services, share information and collaborate on important international issues. It works with national regulators, governments and stakeholders, through member-body collaboration, articulation of consensus views, and working in collaboration, where possible with other international bodies, especially IFAC.
ICAS’ Sustainability Advisory Group has a remit to increase awareness amongst ICAS members of current issues related to environmental sustainability, and to lead and contribute to the debate on sustainability reporting and assurance. The ICAS Sustainability web pages (www.icas.org.uk/sustainability) have useful information and links, including a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report that can be used as a basis for disclosure in a company’s annual report.
The judges for the competition are:
Sir David Tweedie, ICAS Vice President
Gregor Alexander, Scottish & Southern Energy
Nathan Goode, Grant Thornton
John McAreavey, Member of the ICAS Sustainability Advisory Group
Martin Young, Chairman of the ICAS Sustainability Advisory Group
For further information contact Dee Campbell, ICAS Media Relations Manager, on 0131 347 0307 / 07917 097 335 or at dcampbell@icas.org.uk