The Global Accounting Alliance (GAA) has published a guide to help accountants build business value and resilience through nature-positive actions.
Why nature matters to accountants offers a comprehensive guide to integrating nature into business by describing the necessary foundational knowledge and practical actions required.
The guide says:
‘Nature is increasingly understood as a critical dimension of business resilience, financial stability and economic prosperity. Accountants can play a key role in helping the businesses they advise and lead in getting on top of this agenda and navigating a way forward. Many accountants have already been on a steep learning curve with climate and they can leverage this now to do the same with nature. ‘
The guide offers specific advice to accountants working at various levels within organisations such as Board members, senior managers, analysts, report preparers and external auditors and assurance practitioners.
It offers guidance around:
- understanding your organisation’s relationship with nature
- identifying legal requirements
- assessing nature risk (including specific reference to TNFD)
- setting and meeting targets
- working with stakeholders
- working with experts
- assessing data requirements
- integrating nature into decision making
- understanding various reporting frameworks
- planning for reporting
- aligning nature data to financial statements.
The guide quotes Frank Elderson, a Board Member of the European Central Bank, as saying:
‘Destroy nature and you destroy the economy. This is not some kind of a flower-power, tree-hugging exercise … this is core economics. Even if I couldn’t care less about the planet, even if I couldn’t care less about biodiversity, I would say the exact same things.’
