AC342      Half Unit
Accounting, Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

In the past decade, sustainability issues have attracted enormous attention from investors, regulators, and other stakeholders. This is evidenced by the exponential growth of sustainable investing in global capital markets and the mandating of sustainability-related disclosures across the world. The course invites students to reflect critically on recent developments in sustainability accounting and on the usefulness and ethical foundations of corporate sustainability disclosures.  Students will engage with real world examples and case studies.

This course introduces students to the fundamental concepts of business ethics and ethical reasoning, sustainability reporting, and responsible investing. It evaluates the potential benefits of firms disclosing sustainability information, as well as significant challenges to be overcome, including the risk of greenwashing. Students will learn about existing and emerging sustainability regulations and frameworks for sustainability performance metrics, such as ESG ratings. The course also explores how key capital market participants, such as asset managers, analysts, and banks, can incorporate sustainability information into their investment decisions.

 

30 hours of seminars in the Winter Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.

There are 30 hours of seminars in WT, comprising 10 weeks of twice-weekly 1.5 hour seminars. There will be a reading week in week 6. 

Students will have the opportunity to submit a formative group project on which they will receive written feedback.

Students are expected to contribute to seminar discussions in each session.

No one book covers the entire syllabus. In addition to professional and academic journals, reading will cover the following

• Laine, M., Tregidga, H. and Unerman, J. (2021) Sustainability Accounting and Accountability (3rd ed.), Routledge;

Students will also be referred to relevant examples of corporate and other reports, and websites. Detailed course programmes and reading lists will be distributed at the first lecture of the course.

Exam (60%), duration: 120 Minutes, reading time: 15 minutes in the Spring exam period

Project (40%)

Further details relating to assessment and coursework, as well as feedback, will be made available on Moodle nearer the scheduled start time of the course and will be updated as the course progresses with specific instructions and guidance.