Accounting And Statistical Analyses For Sustainable Development

In this Open Access publication Claudia Lemke develops a comprehensive Multi-Level Sustainable Development Index (MLSDI) that is applicable to micro, meso, and macro objects by conducting methodological and empirical research. Multi-level comparability is crucial because the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at macro level can only be achieved if micro and meso objects contribute. The author shows that a novel information-theoretic algorithm outperforms established multivariate statistical weighting methods such as the principal component analysis (PCA). Overcoming further methodological shortcomings of previous sustainable development indices, the MLSDI avoids misled managerial and political decision making. About the author Dr. Claudia Lemke holds a doctorate degree in Sustainability Accounting and Management Control from the Technische Universität Berlin. She worked several years as a Senior Research Associate in the field of sustainability science and corporate sustainability. She is now employed as a Supply Chain Sustainability Manager and is responsible for driving sustainability in the FMCG industry.

In this Open Access publication Claudia Lemke develops a comprehensive Multi-Level Sustainable Development Index (MLSDI) that is applicable to micro, meso, and macro objects by conducting methodological and empirical research. Multi-level comparability is crucial because the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at macro level can only be achieved if micro and meso objects contribute. The author shows that a novel information-theoretic algorithm outperforms established multivariate statistical weighting methods such as the principal component analysis (PCA). Overcoming further methodological shortcomings of previous sustainable development indices, the MLSDI avoids misled managerial and political decision making.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution of land and water, land-use changes, lack of equality and other problems at local, national and global levels represent a challenge for economics as a social science. Mainstream neoclassical economics may be able to contribute to a more sustainable society but it has also played a dominant role in a period where problems have been aggravated. A pluralist and democratic view of economics is therefore very much warranted. This book presents a multidimensional and ideologically more open view of economics: understanding economics in multidimensional terms is in accordance with the 17 sustainable development goals recognized by nations at the UN-level in 2015. Accordingly, approaches to decision making and accounting at the national- and business levels have to be reconsidered. Neoclassical Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) with focus on the monetary dimension and an assumed consensus about a specific market ideology to be applied is not compatible with democratic societies where citizen and actors in other roles normally differ with respect to ideological orientation. Environmental Impact Statements and Multi-Criteria methods are used to some extent to broaden approaches to decision-making. In this book, Positional Analysis is advocated as a multidimensional and ideologically open approach. Positional Analysis is based on a political economic conceptual framework (as part of ecological economics) that differs from neoclassical ideas of individuals, firms and markets. And since approaches to decision-making and to accounting are closely connected, a new theoretical perspective in economics similarly raises issues of how national and business accounting can be opened up to meet present demands among various actors in society. This perspective raises also numerous ethical questions at the science and policy interface that need to be properly addressed for sustainability decision making.

The papers in this conference proceedings address the various conceptual, measurement and statistical policy issues that arise when applying accounting frameworks to the concept of sustainable development.

This is the fourth in a series publishing the best contributions on environmental management accounting (EMA) from around the world. This volume brings together international examples of leading thinking and practice in this rapidly developing area. This is the most comprehensive volume to date covering theory, practice and case studies on sustainability accounting and reporting. It covers tools, frameworks, concepts as well as case studies and empirical analysis.

This CIMA research project provides insights into the interrelationship between existing management accounting practices and accounting tools which seek to guide organisations towards sustainable development and create information about accounting techniques which addresses the issue of sustainable development. Few studies have sought management accountants views on accounting techniques. This research project builds on the existing literature by paying attention to interactions between sustainable development performance data, management accountants, management accounting processes and management accounting generated data. The research also draws from FCA (full accounting technique)which is an accounting technique gaining currency within policy and business circles. The project points out that the SAM (Sustainability Assessment Model) is a form of full cost accounting and the research furthers our knowledge of FCA and its usefulness as an accounting tool. The project also examines how sustainable development data is used within a case study organisation (BP) and how such data can be used within other organisations. * Shows how Sustainability Assessment Model (SAM) performance data is perceived by project management teams. * Provides a broad perception of the SAM from the oil and gas industry. * Evaluates the usefulness of the SAM in the electricity and building industry

Before the late 1980s, when the ideas of sustainability and sustainable development to the forefront of public debate, conventional, neo-classical economic thinking about development and growth had rarely given any consideration to the needs of future generations, or the sustainability of natural resource use. Defining sustainability broadly as intergenerational fairness in the long-term decision making of a whole society, and using established economic concepts, this selection of refereed journal articles brings a famously ill-defined concept into sharp focus, providing academics at all levels with a formidable research tool. Spanning thirty years of the most important philosophical, theoretical and empirical contributions from both critics and defenders of neo-classical assumptions and methods of economic analysis, this focused collection of papers constitutes a unique, balanced resource on the full range of intellectual debates surrounding the economics of sustainability.