Jan Bebbington and Desna Mackenzie (Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business, Lancaster University, UK)
Over the many years Professor Jeffrey Unerman pushed the case for social, environmental and sustainability accounting he made a significant contribution to scholarship within the field, and also to the development of this topic area within the accounting profession.
Sadly, Jeffrey passed away in 2020, and the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business – of which he was Interim Director at the time– dedicated their 2021 Annual Symposium to celebrating his work and its impact. Ten of his colleagues, from academic and professional bodies, spoke eloquently about his intellectual acuity, openness and curiosity, as well as his personal warmth, and the mentoring and support he provided to others.
CSEAR members were well represented at the event, with presentations from Ian Thomson, Leonardo Rinaldi and Jan Bebbington, and there are also presentations from the ICAEW and BAFA, as well as tributes from longstanding academic collaborators.
All of the Symposium presentations can now be viewed at a dedicated page on the Pentland Centre website, and a Youtube playlist. While it is immensely sad to have curated this material, we hope that hearing the various recollections and tributes from the symposium will be of some comfort.