ACC41240

Sustainability disclosures are a fast-evolving area of corporate reporting and a key determinant for both internal decision making as well as external assessment from capital markets, regulators, and the wider public. In this module, students will learn why sustainability reporting is important (from a societal as well as business perspective, and how these two are inherently interlinked), the current state of play, and key developments in regulation.

Sustainability is a broad term with different understandings and definitions. It relates to data from all the business processes and departments in the organization. In this module, students will learn how this information can be organized, analysed and presented to provide information for decision makers within and outside of the organization.

Voluntary non-financial disclosure is increasingly popular, with an increasing number of companies providing standalone sustainability reports or integrating sustainability information into their annual reports. This module will teach students how to handle related data and analyse reports. This explicitly will encourage critical assessment of data quality and credibility of sustainability claims. Scrutiny is increasing and greenwashing poses real risks to both receivers as well as producers of
greenwashed reporting. The role of assurance will also be covered.

Lastly, this module will provide an overview of the upcoming regulatory requirements and key stakeholders in the standard setting processes. The module has a focus on environmental sustainability and key green reporting metrics such as greenhouse gas emissions but will also touch upon broader sustainability topics such as gender pay gap reporting and corporate governance.