Following the issuance of four policy statements on core issues in relation to sustainability and the accountancy profession in January 2009, FEE (Fédération des Experts comptables Européens – Federation of European Accountants) is pleased to issue three further policy statements in its sustainability serials.

FEE acknowledges that the urgent nature of the challenge of sustainability is becoming widely recognised. Accountants within and outside organisations should help translating and operationalising the general concept of sustainability at the level of strategy formulation, process improvement and performance measurement.
FEE shares its strategy on sustainability in the form of a series of policy statements.
The three further policy statements in this series cover the following topical issues:

In addition, FEE published a policy statement on sustainability and the crisis: “Shaping a Sustainable Economy”. FEE will publish in the near future further policy statements on the contribution to sustainability of the accountancy profession.

FEE President, Hans van Damme, underlined that: “The growth in reporting on environmental and social performance in separate reports, or integrated with financial reports, reflects the increasing importance of this information to management and external stakeholders. The accountancy function has a leading role to play in ensuring the quality and credibility of management information, be it financial, non-financial, internal and external, thus contributing to ensure that this information is usefulto business decision-making”.

Paul Druckman, Chairman of the FEE Sustainability Policy Group, emphasised: “Now sustainable business development drills deeper into organisations, the linkages between corporate governance and sustainability are becoming more pronounced. Sustainability plays an increasing role restoring and maintaining confidence notably through its longer term focus and nature”.