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Should accounting for bees be a core element of integrated reports?
strategies but has not developed su ciently to re ect speci c risk factors and has certainly failed to recognise and report on the nancial materiality of bee decline-related risks. As integrated reporting evolves and accountants develop new approaches to reporting environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks, e orts to prevent bee decline should, and will, become a core element within integrated reports for business in the food and other a ected sectors. As integrated reporting matures, key ecological risks relating to extinction threats and species depletion will be increasingly recognised, assessed and disclosed.
A casual glance at Woolworth’s 2015 integrated report shows that embedding sustainability is core to the company’s strategy and that their Good Business Journey programme has as a main objective, measuring and managing their direct and indirect impact on the world across their value chain. Woolworths states,
‘In Southern Africa one of our key achievements has been the development of our Farming for the Future programme which, through independent auditing, assists our produce suppliers to incrementally improve environmental performance. Now in its sixth year, we have 98% of our primary Woolworths fruit, vegetable, wine and horticulture producers working as part of this scheme. is programme has proved to be a great success and we are seeing improvements in farm level environmental management, greater productivity, e ciency, awareness and innovation among food suppliers.’ 2
Although pollinators are not mentioned speci cally, it is highly likely that ‘Farming for the Future’ includes initiatives aimed at protecting and enhancing bee populations.
2 See Woolworths Integrated Report (2015) 86.
Bees and the changing role of accounting
Essentially, we are faced with the risk of a vicious chain of events if bee decline continues: no bees, no pollination, no produce, no food supply, no cash ows for businesses involved in food production, no business. Indeed, humans could not survive without bees. e services and expertise of scientists, ecologists and even entomologists are crucial to the accounting function in today’s society. In a world where natural capital, biodiversity and habitats are under increasing threat from climate change, accountants must ‘talk’ to di erent communities outside the traditional domain of nance so as to be adequately informed and capable of dealing with diverse risks in our changing world. Integrated thinking, at the heart of integrated reporting, requires companies to identify issues like bee decline as material, integrate them into their business strategy and consequently report on their risk management approaches.
Jill Atkins holds a chair in nancial management at the Management School at the University of Shef eld and is also a visiting professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She previously worked as a professor at Henley Business School and King’s College London.
Her research focuses on responsible investment, stakeholder accountability, social accounting, integrated reporting and corporate governance. Jill chairs the British Accounting and Finance Association’s Special Interest Group on Corporate Governance and enjoys organising conferences that bring together governance specialists from the academia, corporate and investor communities.
She has recently co-edited a book on The Business of Bees: An Integrated Approach to Bee Decline and Corporate Responsibility as part of a long-term project investigating the role of accounting and responsible investment in preserving biodiversity and addressing the impacts of climate change on business. Jill’s leading textbook, Corporate Governance and Accountability, is in its fourth edition.
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