Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) refers to the factors in measuring the sustainability and societal impact of an investment in a company or business. Analysis of these criteria can help determine the future financial performance of companies.
ESG criteria are a set of standards for a company’s operations that today’s socially conscious investors use to screen potential investments.
- Environmental criteria look at how a company performs as a steward of nature in protecting the planet
- Social criteria examine how the company manages relationships with employees, suppliers, customers, and the communities where it operates
- Governance deals with a company’s leadership, the pay of its executives, audits, internal controls, and shareholder rights
Investors’ demand enhanced information about how companies are approaching environmental sustainability. (Sustainability accounting). The foundation of sustainability reporting is for an organization to identify and prioritize its impacts on the economy, environment, and people - to be transparent about their impacts.
This course is an introduction to the topic of ESG and what accountants and management should know.
Publication Date: February 2023
Designed For
Accountants and Finance professionals, Auditors, Executive management/ Board members and Audit Committee members, and Legal and Compliance professionals
Topics Covered
- Evaluate the concepts and examine each component of ESG
- Examine a framework for ESG
- Determine the responsibilities of accountants, management and the board for ESG concepts
- Examine various accounting considerations
- Consider impacts on financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures (DCP)
- Examine how to measure ESG performance
Learning Objectives
- Identify and evaluate the concepts involved in ESG
- Identify responsibilities of accountants, management and the board
- Identify and examine various accounting considerations
- Identify and consider impacts on financial reporting and DCP
Level
Basic
Instructional Method
Self-Study
NASBA Field of Study
Accounting (2 hours)
Program Prerequisites
None
Advance Preparation
None
Instructor
Lynn Fountain
Lynn Fountain has over 38 years of experience spanning public accounting, corporate accounting and consulting. 20 years of her experience has been working in the areas of internal and external auditing and risk management. She is a subject matter expert in multiple fields including internal audit, ethics, fraud evaluations, Sarbanes-Oxley, enterprise risk management, governance, financial management and compliance. Lynn has held two Chief Audit Executive (CAE) positions for international companies. In one of her roles as CAE, she assisted in the investigation of a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme perpetrated by a vendor that spanned 7 years and implicated 20 employees. The fraud was formally investigation by the FBI and resulted in 5 indictments estimating a $13M fraud loss.
Ms. Fountain is currently engaged in her own consulting and training practice. She is a highly sought-after trainer and international speaker. In addition, Ms. Fountain has assisted numerous companies with enterprise risk management frameworks, internal audit processes and financial accounting. She also serves as a discussion leader for the AICPA for numerous classes finance, accounting and risk management topics.
Ms. Fountain is the author of three separate technical books. Her first book released in 2015 by the Institute of Internal Auditors Foundation is entitled “Raise the Red Flag – The Internal Auditors Guide to Fraud Evaluations”. Her second book “Leading the Internal Audit Function” was released in October 2015 by Taylor & Francis Publications. This book serves as the initial launch for a series of leading practice internal audit and information technology publications. Her third book “Ethics and the Internal Auditor’s Dilemma” was released in December 2016.
Ms. Fountain obtained her BSBA from Pittsburg State University and her MBA from Washburn University in Kansas. She has her CPA, CGMA, CRMA credentials.