The Role of Accountants and the Accounting Profession in Achieving the Sustainable Development

Abstract

Abstract Sustainability, an increasingly addressed business principle, has begun to take place in modern business systems and become a focus for ways of assessing corporate performance in all three dimensions of the environmental, social, and economic spheres. Thus, the accounting profession and accountants have a key role in the core of active business for the achievement of sustainable development objectives. This aim at enabling financial and non-financial activities to be carried out in an honest way towards society the environment and according to universally valid principles that want to improve the quality of life and business. The literature frequently highlights the need to expand the evolution of sustainable development through various spheres of action. This paper intends to outline the current context on the contribution made by accounting professionals towards sustainable development and their efforts towards this direction. Using a qualitative research methodology, the initiatives organized by accounting regulatory bodies and representatives of the accounting profession will be analyzed. The aim of the current paper is to contribute to the literature in the field of finance and accounting by highlighting the role of accountants around sustainable development and presenting the various attempts, which have started from the accounting profession, to support the goals for sustainable development, presented in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development - 2015 by UN.