An interview with Carol Adams by Chris Sheedy First published by ICAS, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. You can view the original article here.
Accounting and sustainability are inseparably linked says Professor Carol Adams CA, who considers by herself a citizen of the world.
Last time we spoke, Professor Carol Adams CA was in her office in Melbourne, Australia. This time she’s in an apartment in Durham, UK. Next time, who knows? She has lived in Germany, Australia, Bermuda, England and Scotland, and worked in countless other parts of the world. She is never quite sure where her career will lead her, and Carol is perfectly comfortable with that.
“Where am I from? All over really,” she says. “My father was in the Merchant Navy so we travelled a lot, but I primarily grew up in the Bermuda, England and Scotland.”
“Fourteen years ago I moved from Glasgow, where it rains quite a lot, to Melbourne. The idea of bringing up kids in Australia was very appealing and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there.”
In Australia Carol, an ICAS member, took a job as a Professor of Accounting at Monash University. Here she continued the research that has been a theme of much of her career – sustainability and accounting. She is now a member of the Sustainability Committee at ICAS, further developing, focussing and promoting the vital connection between numbers and effects.
Carol,
Thank you for sharing the interview. I fully agree that the accounting profession needs further capacity building. My experience is that the mountain will be largest to climb in the Far East and easiest in Europe. I had hoped that the SASB processes would become mandatory at some point for American listed companies, but the future of Dodd-Frank is questionable at best.
I cannot help but see a significant failure in company governance through all of this. How do we move the enlightenment forward?
Glenn
Thanks for your comment Glenn. Change is a slow process – as you well know. We need to ensure that accountants have the skills to assess what they need to know to provide information for decision making that minimises negative impacts ad creates long term value, broadly defined. That means reconsidering pre and post qualification professional training and the education people get before commencing that training.
Your websites looking good by the way.
Carol