ABSTRACT
In his paper, Owen (2013) tracks the development from The Corporate Report (1975) through Accounting for Sustainability and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to the IIRC discussion paper Toward Integrated Reporting. From his analysis, Owen (2013) identified the essential elements to be included in a modern professional accounting curriculum, described how ACCA has embedded Integrated Reporting in its curriculum, and discussed future curriculum development, in particular the challenges associated with sustainability. It is the embedding of sustainability rather than integrated reporting that I believe to be the real challenge for accounting. It is not enough to simply add new techniques into professional curricula without enabling accountants to critically examine the ways of thinking and techniques that have contributed to society’s unsustainability. I argue that it is only if we provide accountants with these intellectual abilities will accounting create the capacity to resolve the challenges posed by sustainability.
