Accountants in climate change

Climate is changing and the global temperature has risen significantly steeply over the past 40 years. Now what we considered as personal is entering into professional losses. Businesses are affecting on the same tangent by losing bucks in untreated operations of wasting resources. With the current global GDP of $87.55 trillion, a study from August 2015 found that an increase of 4.5°C in global temperatures could shrink the global domestic product to $72 trillion. Without going into detail on how climate change impacting business, it is absolutely critical to address climate change and how accountants in their capacity and outsourcing company can contribute their efforts.

With the latest movements dedicated to a climate like the Paris agreement, leaders from 189 countries have joined together to reduce the global greenhouse emission and limit the global temperature increase to 2 degrees. With more media coverage and efforts from the leaders, companies either big or small have to adapt to changes and practice the rules on the ground level. Individual efforts can be seen only when the planning is coordinated to make this economy a less carbon user.

Small or midsize companies think that they can’t bring much of a change and put in a very low priority task by hoping that only large companies would mend their policies for climate change but that’s not true. Another report from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley predicts the average income in the United States might be reduced by 36 percent by 2100. Companies that persist in treating climate change solely not as a business problem but as a corporate social responsibility issue, will risk the greatest consequences. As a business owner, you can contribute your part to reverse the adverse climate change by taking steps in the direction.

Measures

Measuring is important as it differentiates yesterday from today. Even a small step will go waste if it takes in without calculating the climate change effect on your business. Accountants should provide a scalable plan on economic, social and business risk to compact the climate change from scratch by setting a benchmark to follow. A small research on business consumption of energy will present a clear picture of what and how much effort is needed to achieve not a sustainable decision but also an increase in revenue.

Policies

Every company is affecting the climate in its unique way means there is no one-size-fits-all approach. If you are a company working as an outsourcing firm, your carbon emission will be generated from the backend operations but not from shipping operations. Try to take the approach from the initiative to mitigate climate-related costs by reducing carbon emission in every possible way. Make strict policies and encourage your team to follow it. Reduce the usage of excessive light, paper cups, recycle the waste properly etc. The whole idea is to make the internal policies by balancing and measuring long-term economic changes. Make sure that the cost after eliminating the carbon emission in your business will be more than the administrative cost of implementing those changes.

Carbon Footprint

Climate change is one of the most important challenges that every business is facing in this century without even knowing that this is the problem they have to tackle. More carbon footprints mean more cost on your supply chain. Currently, electricity and transport represent the largest sources of emissions and the greatest opportunity for saving. Accountants can take a collaborative approach and help to conduct an internal audit to understand the carbon measurements produced by the business and can provide emission reduction plans with cost estimates. You can also calculate your carbon footprint here.

AcoBloom International as an accounting outsourcing company not only supports but takes steps to reverse climate change. We also amplify our workflow to develop meaningful and assessable solutions to the accounting industry.

 

Write your thoughts in the comment section on how you are dedicating the efforts to climate change.

Source: https://www.acobloom.com/2021/02/role-of-accountants-in-helping-to-reverse-climate-change/