Introduction:

Companies have without doubt a large influence on the economy and life in general. No sustainable development is possible without a sustainable development of corporations. Corporate management is therefore a crucial actor in shaping the future development of companies as well as the economy and society. Management activities are based on managerial decisions and management information. Wrong, unsustainable management decisions neglecting social and environmental issues impede the whole corporate organization from improving in sustainability terms. Sustainability related management information is thus of crucial importance for sustainable development but also for successfully directing a company through sustainability related social, legal, political and economic requirements. Accounting, especially management accounting, as the traditionally central and most important information management system, is therefore challenged to provide useful information in terms of corporate sustainability.

Given the fact that companies are founded and run for economic purposes, requires management to develop most, if not all of its societal engagement in relation to the economic goals of the corporation. As a consequence, accounting for corporate sustainability is a managerial question and has to be tightly linked to identifying and creating business cases for sustainability.