Social and environmental sustainability in accounting education: The current state of the art

Climate change campaigns have increased awareness globally, highlighting accounting and accountability for environmental and social issues. Climate impacts are now a key aspect of many businesses’ strategic decisions and management objectives, encouraging accounting and governance, which blends both social and environmental matters and more traditional financial measures. However, accounting education may be behind the curve in integrating these approaches with traditional teaching of accounting. Accounting education must evolve beyond technical proficiency to encompass broader accountability and sustainability considerations. Future accountants need diverse expertise, critical thinking, ethical reasoning, and adaptability to address complex sustainability challenges. Integrating sustainability into accounting curricula demands collaboration among educators, professional organisations, regulators, and businesses. Embedding sustainability across all courses through interdisciplinary, practical, and transformative learning approaches fosters critical thinking and professional skills. Effective pedagogical strategies, such as case studies and awareness-raising initiatives, enhance student understanding of sustainability's complexities. However, translating education into actionable practices remains challenging. This chapter analyses approaches to teaching accounting and social and environmental accountability issues as part of the curriculum in different academic institutions and assesses the extent of the current state of the art.