For nearly three years, we have been working on the further development of Sustainable Performance Accounting (SPA). Our approach to integrated ESG accounting and reporting has now been published in the renowned Journal of International Accounting (IRZ). SPA takes sustainability reporting to a new level. We take the EU Green Deal's goal of bringing financial and sustainability reporting to the same level seriously. SPA enables companies to integrate sustainability aspects directly into their financial reporting by expanding classic key performance indicators such as EBIT with sustainability factors. The result is Sustainable EBIT, or SEBIT for short, which combines financial performance and ESG factors, enabling a more holistic assessment.

The article "From EBIT to SEBIT (Sustainable EBIT) – Part 1: Considerations for the Further Development of Sustainability Reporting" highlights the challenge of capturing ESG issues within a structured framework. In many companies, ESG aspects are now understood as an essential component of their financial and strategic management. SPA offers innovative solutions to make such aspects, including financial materiality and impact materiality, measurable, and manageable. SPA develops systematic guidelines on how companies can begin implementing ESG accounting directly, for example, by considering CO₂ emissions through provisions. Part 2 of this article, in the next issue of IRZ (12/2024), will further explore this concept and illustrate it with a numerical example.

The Journal of International Accounting (IRZ) is a renowned journal that focuses on current developments in international accounting and provides valuable insights for the financial and corporate world through in-depth analyses and practice-oriented articles. The publication of "From EBIT to SEBIT" as a featured topic in November 2024 underscores the importance of these forward-looking considerations regarding sustainability reporting and their potential for the economy.

You can find the article here (registration required).