Accounting, biodiversity and firm decision-making (AccBiD)

This proposal takes an accounting perspective on a key sustainability issue: biodiversity and ecological services. It seems evident that any sustainability transition to a nature-positive future is dependent on getting the business world involved. Financial and non-financial accounting information are key drivers of organizational behaviour. We maintain that the capability of organisations, financial markets and eventually societies more broadly to transition towards a sustainable future is dependent on the quality of information they have at their disposal. A key challenge in this quest lies with how organisations incorporate externalities, such as biodiversity loss, in their decision-making, which often require quantifying and monetizing aspects that are hard to compare. This project uses case study research to produce new knowledge on how considerations of biodiversity and ecological services can be incorporated into organisational decision-making processes.