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Special issue on sustainability accounting, auditing and accountability
Edited by Roger L. Burritt and Stefan Schaltegger
1. Introduction
Two main paths for development of sustainability accounting can be distinguished. The first path adopts a critical theory perspective. Critical theorists argue that corporate sustainability accounting is the cause and source of corporate sustainability problems ([37] Maunders and Burritt, 1991; [6] Aras and Crowther, 2009; [28] Gray and Milne, 2002; [26] Gray, 2010), because conventions are not fit for the purpose of recording and disclosing information about corporate social and environmental impacts ([25] Gray, 2002; [27] Gray and Bebbington, 2000; [56] Welford, 1997). For instance, [26] Gray (2010) argues that as the very definition of what is required for "sustainability" remains highly contested there is little hope for corporate sustainability accounting amounting to much use (see also [28] Gray and Milne, 2002). From the critical perspective, sustainability accounting is a fad and will disappear in time.
The second, management orientated path to sustainability accounting, gives recognition to the importance of management decision making and views corporate sustainability accounting as a set of tools that provide help for managers dealing with different decisions. Management and accounting theorists argue that there are a number of corporate sustainability decision settings for which accounting information provides necessary support as the basis for assessing deliberative actions to be taken ([23] Gabel and Sinclair-Desgagné, 1993; [15] Burritt et al. , 2002).
As several attempts have been made to map literature in the field of sustainability accounting and reporting (see summaries of pertinent works in [32] Lamberton, 2005, [54] Thomson, 2007; [6] Aras and Crowther, 2009; [46] Schaltegger and Burritt, 2009), only a selection of prominent recent works, are reviewed here. This paper reviews the most recent developments, and approaches which constitute these two paths of sustainability accounting development. It furthermore deals with the question of what the future focus of sustainability accounting research and practice could be.
The article proceeds as follows: in section 2, the critical path of sustainability accounting development is examined. Section 3 considers the managerial path of sustainability accounting development, and includes four sub-sections, which examine the three approaches, followed by inside out, outside in, and the twin-track approaches. Finally, in section 4, suggestions are made about the outlook...