Over 10,000 financial professionals signed up for the ACCA ‘Accounting for the Future’ online event last year. The event featured live and pre-recorded webcasts, presentations and workshops which explored the role that finance professionals will play in building a stronger and sustainable global economy.
The final day of the week-long event looked at the ‘Green Economy’. Professor Adrian Henriques who is independent CSR adviser and author of Corporate Impact: Measuring and Managing Your Social Footprint chaired a webcast titled ‘Green Economy 2050’.
He is joined by Luke Wreford, Policy Development Office at WWF-UK, Tony Manwaring, CEO of Tomorrow’s Company and David Aeron Thomas, Head of Metrics at Forum for the Future. They discuss what they define as the 'Green Economy', how it would look like and operate in 2050 and what the macroeconomic (policy, regulation) and microeconomic (business practices) issues are. Luke, Tony and David talk about the barriers to the Green Economy and how they think businesses will change to adapt to a new business and social environment. Tony also speaks about the corporations and professionals that are already finding opportunities through innovation such as B9 Shipping's carbon neutral vessels and Integrate Reporting. The panel also speak about how companies can gain a competitive advantage when adopting an energy-efficient and responsibile approach.