I have a simple and I think brutally effective suggestion for regulators around the world to effect a step change in sustainability reporting.

The kind of change that, at a stroke, will make sustainability efforts central to any conversation about company performance, raise sustainability transparency globally and force all businesses to seriously engage with sustainable practices and behaviour whether they like it or not.

My simple and brutally effective suggestion is this:

Mandate that every income statement and every balance sheet in every accounting jurisdiction has 2 new lines on it.

On the income statement the 2 new lines are: Sustainability Revenue and Sustainability Expenses.

On the balance sheet the 2 new lines are: Sustainability Liabilities and Sustainability Assets.

That’s just 4 lines to effect a step-change in sustainability reporting, globally.

Can you imagine an income statement without a sales revenue or operational expenses line on it? Then if you believe the sustainability agenda is important to the future of us all, how can you not imagine the same income statement without a sustainability revenue and sustainability expenses line on it?

If regulators don’t have the will to mandate 4 extra lines then take the initiative in your own business and just do it. What’s the downside? If all you can put on those 4 lines to start with is zero, then at least you and all your stakeholders know there is only one way you can go – forwards into a sustainable future.

Just add those 4 lines and see what happens.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 3rd, 2010 at 3:47 am and is filed under Sustainability, Transparency. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.