Can Accounting Save the Planet?
Senior Lecturer Sendirella George's research focuses on how alternative accounting practices and systems can be developed to help solve ‘global challenges'.
“… accounting narratives potentially offer multiple stories, and the issues then are which stories are to be told and re-told; who has the power and opportunity to tell their story and be listened to; and which stories are neglected and diminish our understanding of accounting’s potential”. (Cooper & Morgan 2013, p. 423).
“So it has come to this. The global biodiversity crisis is so severe that brilliant scientists, political leaders, eco-warriors, and religious gurus can no longer save us from ourselves. The military is powerless. But there may be one last hope for life on earth: accountants.“
Jonathan Watts, The Guardian (2010)
In 2010, while completing my postgraduate accounting honours degree at Te Herenga Waka, I had the transformative experience of studying under Professor Judy Brown in a course on accounting and society. It was here that I was introduced to an idea that changed my career trajectory forever: what if accounting was more than just a technical practice? What if it was a moral and social force too? Both society and the accounting profession had long clung to a narrow, restrictive view of what accounting is and can be—but what if we could expand that vision? What if we could imagine a 'universe of all possible accountings’ (Gray, 2002, p. 692) where diverse voices, overlooked narratives, and untold stories of organisational behaviour and accountability could finally come to light?
This revolutionary concept of accounting—one that is democratic, transparent, and above all, emancipatory—captivated me. There was no turning back. After a brief stint as an auditing graduate, I returned to Te Herenga Waka in July 2010, driven by a desire to explore how accounting could be transformed into a powerful set of practices, tools, and systems capable of addressing humanity’s most urgent crises: climate change, environmental devastation, social inequality, and poverty. Could this broader universe of accountings help save the planet? That question has fuelled my research and teaching ever since.
But how, exactly, can accounting save the planet? For many people, accounting evokes thoughts of numbers, financial statements, and balancing budgets—tools designed to maximise profit and measure only financial performance. However, the field of accounting has evolved far beyond these confines. The profession now recognises a wider spectrum of accountability obligations—relationships between organisations and their stakeholders that go beyond financial outcomes. These stakeholders, ranging from individuals to entire communities, are directly impacted by the actions of businesses, governments, and other powerful institutions. Historically, accounting focused almost exclusively on financial performance, largely ignoring the broader social and environmental impacts of corporate actions and government policies. This blind spot has, critics argue, worsened many of the grand challenges facing our world today. Over recent decades, however, we’ve seen a seismic shift. There's been growing global pressure on businesses—particularly large multinationals—to account for and improve their ethical, social, and environmental impacts. At the same time, governments are being called upon to confront climate change and social wellbeing with renewed urgency, rethinking how they measure public service success and impact through tools like wellbeing budgets and put pressure on powerful societal actors to manage their impacts and enforce social and environmental accountability.
Citizens and stakeholders are demanding robust systems of accountability that compel those in power to be transparent about their impacts—economic, environmental, and social. The need for such systems is undeniable, and the possibilities are endless. The question is: how can we reimagine the role of accounting in shaping a more just, equitable, and sustainable world? This challenge lies at the heart of the 'social accounting movement' and the critical accounting academic field, where I have focused my research. Specifically, my work is guided by an emerging theoretical framework called critical dialogic accounting and accountability (CDAA). Rooted in poststructural political theory, CDAA seeks to ‘democratise’ accounting for progressive social change by challenging the dominance of capital-driven perspectives. Instead, it urges us to embrace a range of diverse, sometimes conflicting sociopolitical viewpoints on business-society relationships and organisational/institutional accountability. CDAA theorists argue that for accounting to truly contribute to progressive social change, it must not only acknowledge but actively engage with this plurality, take ideological conflicts seriously, confront power imbalances, and ultimately develop accountings that allow for a more pluralistic expression of the public interest.
Since the start of my academic journey, my research programme has centred on the operationalisation of CDAA. Whereas conventional accounting frameworks are shaped predominantly by the perspectives of those in positions of power, CDAA advocated for engagement with (or even starting with!) the voices and viewpoints of those to whom powerholders are accountable. While undertaking my PhD, I encountered a growing body of literature examining how diverse stakeholder and citizen groups – including environmental and human rights organisations, Indigenous/Māori communities, labour unions, and grassroots movements and organisations – were already engaging in the production of unofficial accounts documenting the performance and impact of businesses and governments. These alternative reports, referred to in the literature as counter accounts, provide a critical counter-narrative to the often sanitised and polished versions of organisational performance disseminated by businesses and state institutions, as well as the cursory oversight offered by regulatory bodies.
Over the last decade, I’ve had the privilege of exploring counter accounts alongside several influential colleagues and co-authors. Together, we've worked to elevate and legitimise counter-accounts within the framework of a more democratised accounting system. Our research has examined why and how stakeholders and citizens—often through social movements—turn to counter-accounts as essential tools in their efforts to drive social change and enhance accountability (George et al., 2023). We've also explored the transformative impact of counter accounts in specific settings, such as uncovering governmental unaccountability for human rights abuses tied to Australia’s immigration policies (George et al., 2024; Twyford et al., 2023).
What we’ve found is that counter accounts are far more than supplementary narratives; they are powerful instruments of social change. They serve as critical tools in exposing institutional wrongdoing, empowering stakeholders and citizens to hold powerholders accountable. Counter accounts play an equally crucial role in educating the public, shedding light on the gaps in business or governmental accountability, and sparking collective action for systemic change. As the saying goes, knowledge is power. In a thriving democracy, the more diverse narratives accounting can reveal about organisational and institutional behaviour, the stronger and more informed our collective understanding of accountability becomes.
Recently, I’ve started exploring how CDAA theory can be brought into the classroom to provoke a more emancipatory vision of accounting. This approach challenges students to think critically and creatively about how alternative accounting practices can compel organisations to be genuinely accountable. By focusing on diverse stakeholders and encouraging transparency around information organisations may wish to hide, this pedagogy pushes students to confront the complex social and environmental demands that often conflict with profit maximisation and governmental economic efficiency. A CDAA-informed pedagogy transforms the learning environment from one where knowledge is merely imparted from educator to passive student, into a dynamic space of co-created learning. Through reflexive dialogue and collaboration, students actively engage in shaping their understanding of accountability. The aim is to cultivate a heightened critical consciousness, empowering students to work collectively toward meaningful social transformation (see Wong et al., 2021; Twyford et al., 2024).
I am excited to continue my research journey into CDAA and counter accounting. The exploration of these transformative, radical, and democratic frameworks and practices promises to expand and redefine the ‘universe of all possible accountings’, and I am hopeful that this might pave the way for developing innovative information and reporting systems, tools, and practices that drive genuine and meaningful accountability and address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.
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