Giving shape and structure to the mess of sustainability accounting

Abstract

Pidd (1996) defines a mess as an unstructured situation where disagreement exists as to what needs to be done and why. This work-in-progress establishes sustainability accounting as a mess. Transmitting new ideas on sustainability from a mess is unlikely to achieve positive responses from receivers. Combining secondary data on well-known sustainability accounting tools with the Innovation Adoption Curve is used to test this proposition. Adoption rates of ISO 14001 and the Global Reporting Initiative’s Guidelines cannot reach the critical mass interval on the Adoption Curve within any reasonable planning horizon. The adoption rate for Local Agenda 21 is significantly higher. Three hierarchical models are then aligned to offer a structure for going beyond the messy consequences from past initiatives in sustainability accounting. Daly’s capitals hierarchy is aligned with an Australian hierarchy of communities-of-place, and with the UN’s hierarchical classifications of human, natural, and built capital stocks.