2023 Accountability in a Sustainable World Conference

 

Stream On Demand Now

September 20-21, 2023

 

The third annual Accountability in a Sustainable World conference will again coincide with the Sustainable Investment Forum, North America (SINVNA), in conjunction with the United Nations Environmental Program Finance Initiative (UNEP-FI). The conference will include over 50 academic and non-academic speakers. These sessions are presented virtually to minimize the carbon footprint and accommodate as many delegates as possible.

Continuing upon the successes of the previous two conferences, the 2023 Accountability in a Sustainable World conference will delve deeper into regulation, sustainability reporting, capital allocation, and performance metrics. The ongoing conversation will answer the immediate need for dialogue among academics and non-academics about sustainability, data and measurement, related assurance, high-quality information to inform responsible investment decisions, and accountability in setting personal, corporate, and public sector goals.

This conference will focus on key pillars of a sustainable future: investment, assurance, regulation, and target setting, while building and strengthening the links between academia and practice. A main feature of the conference is to generate discourse between academics and non-academics, featuring high-profile, well-informed, often provocative speakers. We expect to devote a considerable portion of the conference to discussing the Politicization of ESG. 

 

2023 CARE Conference Preliminary Agenda

 

Day 1

September 20th, Morning - The Changing Sustainability Reporting Landscape

  • Fireside Chat: Shareholders Change the World—Mark van Baal, Follow This; Jan Bouwens, University of Amsterdam; Peter Easton, CARE/ASWQ, University of Notre Dame

  • Panel: The Politicization of ESG—Robert Eccles, University of Oxford; Allison Lee, New York University; Dan Crowley, K&L Gates LLP; and Tim Doyle, Bipartisan Policy Center

  • Fireside Chat: Greenwashing—Robert Eccles, University of Oxford, and Desiree Fixler, VentureESG

  • Panel: Capital Allocation in the Oil and Gas Industry—Shiva Rajgopal, Columbia Business School; Ilmi Granoff, Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School; and Luisa Palacios, Columbia Center of Global Energy Policy

  • Spotlight: Comparing and Contrasting Financial Reporting to Sustainability Reporting— Patricia Dechow, University of Southern California

  • Spotlight: ESG Investing, Jobs, and National Security—Sanjay Bhagat, University of Colorado

  • Spotlight: Non-Financial Violations—Jonas Heese, Harvard Business School

  • Fireside Chat: Enabling Finance and Accounting Teams to Deliver a Sustainable Future: The Accounting for Sustainability (A4S) Altorium—Brad Sparks, A4S, and Susan Whyte, A4S

September 20th, Afternoon - Accounting for Sustainability

  • Plenary: The Importance of Data Quality and Reliable Sustainability Reporting—Mark Zenner, Persefoni

  • Plenary: Establishing the Foundation for Carbon Trading Markets—Karthik Ramanna, University of Oxford; Robert Kaplan, Harvard Business School; and Marc Roston, Stanford University

  • Plenary: Corporate Carbon Emission Statements: A Double Entry System—Stefan Reichelstein, Stanford University

  • Panel: Accounting for Corporate Carbon Emissions—Peter Easton, CARE/ASWQ, University of Notre Dame; Stefan Reichelstein, Stanford University; Gunther Glenk, Harvard Business School Climate Fellow; Teresa Landaverde Lorenzo, Heidelberg Materials; and Jochen Kurtz, BASF

  • Fireside Chat: The Carbon Adjustment Tax—Shiva Rajgopal, Columbia Business School; Aniket Shah, Jefferies; and Gernot Wagner, Columbia Business School

  • Spotlight: Are Carbon Taxes Effective in Mitigating Emissions—Cynthia Jeffrey, Iowa State University

  • Spotlight: ESG Disclosure: Advancing Corporate Sustainability Transparency with the Open for Good Data Platform—Magali Delmas, University of California, Los Angeles

  • Plenary: ESG and Accounting: My Thoughts—DJ Nanda, University of Miami

 

Day 2

September 21st, Morning - Measurement and Assurance

  • Panel: Update on E-liability Accounting: In Practice—Robert Kaplan, Harvard Business School; Karthik Ramanna, University of Oxford; Piyush Jha, Tata Steel Limited

  • Panel: Who Will Provide Assurance for ESG Reports—Roger Simnett, University of New South Wales; Mark Babington, FRC; Thomas Mytton, AccountAbility; Maura Hodge, KPMG; and Warren Maroun, IAASB

  • Panel: ESG and Performance Metrics—Marc Vaessen, KPMG; Simon Braaksma, Philips; Isabelle Grauer-Gaynor, European Securities and Markets Authority; Jeffrey Hales, University of Texas; and Kerstin Lopatta, Universität Hamburg

  • Spotlight: Measuring the Unmeasurable—Arianna Pisciella, University of Lausanne

  • Spotlight: Assessing Materiality in Sustainability Reporting—Richard Sloan, University of Southern California

September 21st, Afternoon - The New Corporate Focus on Sustainability

  • Panel: Building Better Boards—Sunny Misser, AccountAbility; Marco Antonio Achon, Santander US; Robert Herz, Robert H Herz LLC; and Gabriela Figueiredo Dias, International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants

  • Plenary: Achieving Effective Internal Control Over Sustainability Reporting—Jeffrey Thomson, Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO)

  • Spotlight: Managing the Duality of Variance Among ESG Assessments—Sung Eun (Summer) Kim, University of California Irvine School of Law

  • Spotlight: Managerial Myopia and Corporate Social Responsibility—Zabihollah Rezaee, University of Memphis

  • Spotlight: The Importance of Country Level ESG Scores—Süreyya Burcu Avci, Sabanci University

  • Spotlight: The New Corn—Scott W Gibson, Quercus Agroforestry, Inc.

  • Spotlight: The Irrelevance of ESG Disclosure to Retail Investors—Clare Wang, University of Colorado

  • Fireside Chat: How Does Carbon Footprint Information Affect Consumer Choice?—Peter Easton, CARE/ASWQ, University of Notre Dame; Joachim Gassen, Humboldt University, Berlin; and Bianca Beyer, Aalto University

  • Panel: Youth Engagement: Developing Thoughts—Peter Easton, CARE/ASWQ, University of Notre Dame; and Students from the University of Notre Dame

 

The founding editors of ASWQ recognize the continued urgent need for dialogue among academics and practitioners about sustainability, accountability, measurement, assurance of the measures, data to inform (responsible) investment decisions, and accountability in setting personal, corporate, and public sector goals. ASWQ aims to meet this need.


The goals are to (1) build and strengthen the links between academia (both teaching and research) and practice, (2) encourage younger academics by providing an opportunity to present their work to both other academics and practitioners, and (3) provide opportunities for practitioners to communicate with academics and influence their work. The journal is cross-disciplinary, focusing on measurement, assurance of the measurements, and use of the measures. Articles will be short (2,000 to 4,000 words) and written by academics and practitioners, with the intended readership comprising both groups.


ASWQ  advances the creation and dissemination of knowledge and understanding of topical, practical relevance issues by publishing rigorous, peer-reviewed research and thought pieces written by cutting-edge academics and practitioners. The main focus of the peer-review process will be on the authenticity of the results, claims, and conclusions in the paper.


The most important features of published papers are topics related to climate change, ESG, CSR, and sustainability reporting provided that:  
· The findings are of interest to and useful for accounting and investment practitioners
· The findings have inference and application to an accounting and investment management audience beyond a particular region or sector
· The exposition is not excessively theoretical or technical, although some technical presentation may sometimes be necessary
· The arguments incorporate practical considerations, such as implementation, relevance to regulators and standard setters, implications for preparers, auditors, and users of reports, etc.
· Where possible, alternative and supported opinions will be published in the same or consecutive issues. In addition to work not published elsewhere, submissions may be non-technical expositions of technical work published in journals where the primary audience is academics.

 

Direct all questions to asw@nd.edu.

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