Metrics for Sustainable Business: Measures and Standards for the Assessment of Organizations

Metrics for Sustainable Business is the first book to give students a comprehensive understanding of sustainability in organizations from an accounting perspective. The book walks student through the steps for doing a sustainability assessment, and aims to develop them into financial analysts who understand sustainability reports, and are able to create or audit them.

While most books focus on environmental issues, Herriott trains his gaze on the corporate and institutional perspective, covering measurement systems, how to evaluate and improve a standard, and conducting a life cycle assessment. Walking students through the programs of disclosure, the varying standards for corporate ratings, and organizational certification, allows them to grasp the tools for conducting a sustainability assessment and auditing reports. Chapters on accounting for greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and waste introduce students to the technical details in sustainability accounting, while a chapter on the philosophies of sustainability offers an answer to the question, "Why are they asking us to report that?"

Richly demonstrated with practical examples and informative visuals, this book will serve students of sustainability, accounting, and integrated reporting.