Good foot forward (COPY) (COPY) (COPY) (COPY)
Chris Good CA’s candour about his recovery from a mental health crisis offers a signal lesson for the profession, says President Clive Bellingham CA
No turning back
The backlash against climate action gives cause for concern, but the accounting profession will not be tempted to follow suit, says President Alison Cornwell CA
One of my highlights from last year was participating as a panellist at the ICAS Sustainability Summit in April. What struck me was the energy, enthusiasm and commitment of the audience. You could feel it. They were all so willing to listen and share ideas both during and after the event.
Fast forward to January 2025 and the debate can feel like it’s in a very different place. We have seen some big banks and asset managers shy away from being too closely associated with climate action. But the most striking example is President Trump issuing an executive order on his first day in office to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement.
The news should not have come as any surprise. It was a repeat of his first administration, when he also announced US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement soon after assuming office, although, thanks to the way the treaty was drawn up, the US was unable to actually leave until the final year of his presidency.
Yet this time it has happened against a backdrop of lives and livelihoods being lost in Los Angeles. I have friends out there whose homes have gone, reduced to ash.
To be clear, it is not definitively proven that these fires were the result of climate change – establishing direct cause and effect in such situations is often nigh on impossible. But consider also that just a few days later New Orleans, Houston and parts of Florida experienced record levels of snowfall. It was described as a “once-in-a-lifetime event”. We seem to be having a lot of those at present.
Sadly, the US government and a number of major institutions have decided to focus on the short term, even though dealing with one climatic event after another comes with extraordinary economic costs. Insurance companies have certainly noticed – many are exiting areas such as California and hurricane-prone Florida, leaving a combination of households and government to pick up the bill for the damage.
Platform for change
So it is incumbent on all of us – especially those who hold positions of influence in our various companies, businesses and organisations – to try to use our platform to continue pushing for meaningful action on climate change.
I’m proud that ICAS has sustainability as a core part of our 2030 strategy. Our tagline is “Ethical Leadership since 1854” – ICAS making this a priority is quite simply a matter of ethics and doing the right thing. In this case it is about doing right for the environment, the planet and society, as well as for the profession.
And just because the leader of the world’s largest economy has gone in a different direction doesn’t mean sustainability reporting is going away. It will continue to grow in importance and will be at the forefront of annual reports and accounts.
Indeed, we often speak about “warrior accountants” and how our profession has such an important role to play when it comes to connecting sustainability and business strategy.
“Sustainability reporting is not going away – it will continue to grow in importance and will be at the forefront of annual reports and accounts”
Yes, there are challenges around meeting the corporate requirements for sustainability reporting, but there are also ways to flip that into a positive.
During that session at the 2024 Sustainability Summit, we discussed how the fight against climate change should be seen as an opportunity, and how a company can benefit from taking an active role through customer acquisition and loyalty.
Having a clear green agenda is also hugely important when it comes to talent. Many of the CAs of tomorrow will put great stock in a company’s values and environmental commitments when deciding where they want to work. Quite simply, signing up to sustainability makes good business sense.
Two of my fellow panellists at the summit were Peter Norton CA, Group Director of Finance and Investor Relations at NatWest Group, and Professor Marc Lepere, co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Omnevue.
Both men feature in this issue, reflecting on whether big business is deprioritising climate. They underline the huge scale of important work being done around climate change and the sustainability projects that tend to fly under the radar. Their words give some cause for optimism. Which isn’t to say there isn’t also great cause for concern.
What we absolutely must not do, though, is lose sight of the long-term consequences of failing to act now. Clearly the President of the United States has other ideas. We should not abandon ours.
ICAS Sustainability Summit 2025 is on 23 April at County Hall in London. Save the date
No turning back
The backlash against climate action gives cause for concern, but the accounting profession should not be tempted to follow suit, says President Alison Cornwell CA
One of my highlights from last year was participating as a panellist at the ICAS Sustainability Summit in April. What struck me was the energy, enthusiasm and commitment of the audience. You could feel it. They were all so willing to listen and share ideas both during and after the event.
Fast forward to January 2025 and the debate can feel like it’s in a very different place. We have seen some big banks and asset managers shy away from being too closely associated with climate action. But the most striking example is President Trump issuing an executive order on his first day in office to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement.
The news should not have come as any surprise. It was a repeat of his first administration, when he also announced US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement soon after assuming office, although, thanks to the way the treaty was drawn up, the US was unable to actually leave until the final year of his presidency.
Yet this time it has happened against a backdrop of lives and livelihoods being lost in Los Angeles. I have friends out there whose homes have gone, reduced to ash.
To be clear, it is not definitively proven that these fires were the result of climate change – establishing direct cause and effect in such situations is often nigh on impossible. But consider also that just a few days later New Orleans, Houston and parts of Florida experienced record levels of snowfall. It was described as a “once-in-a-lifetime event”. We seem to be having a lot of those at present.
Sadly, the US government and a number of major institutions have decided to focus on the short term, even though dealing with one climatic event after another comes with extraordinary economic costs. Insurance companies have certainly noticed – many are exiting areas such as California and hurricane-prone Florida, leaving a combination of households and government to pick up the bill for the damage.
Platform for change
So it is incumbent on all of us – especially those who hold positions of influence in our various companies, businesses and organisations – to try to use our platform to continue pushing for meaningful action on climate change.
I’m proud that ICAS has sustainability as a core part of our 2030 strategy. Our tagline is “Ethical Leadership since 1854” – ICAS making this a priority is quite simply a matter of ethics and doing the right thing. In this case it is about doing right for the environment, the planet and society, as well as for the profession.
And just because the leader of the world’s largest economy has gone in a different direction doesn’t mean sustainability reporting is going away. It will continue to grow in importance and will be at the forefront of annual reports and accounts.
Indeed, we often speak about “warrior accountants” and how our profession has such an important role to play when it comes to connecting sustainability and business strategy.
“Sustainability reporting is not going away – it will continue to grow in importance and will be at the forefront of annual reports and accounts”
Yes, there are challenges around meeting the corporate requirements for sustainability reporting, but there are also ways to flip that into a positive.
During that session at the 2024 Sustainability Summit, we discussed how the fight against climate change should be seen as an opportunity, and how a company can benefit from taking an active role through customer acquisition and loyalty.
Having a clear green agenda is also hugely important when it comes to talent. Many of the CAs of tomorrow will put great stock in a company’s values and environmental commitments when deciding where they want to work. Quite simply, signing up to sustainability makes good business sense.
Two of my fellow panellists at the summit were Peter Norton CA, Group Director of Finance and Investor Relations at NatWest Group, and Professor Marc Lepere, co-founder and Chief Science Officer at Omnevue.
Both men feature in this issue, reflecting on whether big business is deprioritising climate. They underline the huge scale of important work being done around climate change and the sustainability projects that tend to fly under the radar. Their words give some cause for optimism. Which isn’t to say there isn’t also great cause for concern.
What we absolutely must not do, though, is lose sight of the long-term consequences of failing to act now. Clearly the President of the United States has other ideas. We should not abandon ours.
ICAS Sustainability Summit 2025 is on 23 April at County Hall in London. Save the date
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