For our third ECoP event of 2023-24, we were delighted to welcome Dr Nicolás García-Torea and colleagues to talk to us about the Sustainability Accounting Learning Platform for a Green Economy (Account4GreenEco) project. Nicolás leads this exciting EU Funded project that aims to support self-directed online learning to contribute to the development of communities of sustainability accounting professionals.  Joining Nicolás were Dr David Curbelo (Universidad Europea de Canarias & sustainability consultant) and Anna Marinato (Università degli Studi di Trento) and Mario Gomez (Universidad de Burgos) who have been involved in the development of the materials and testing the programme.  

Nicolás opened the event by explaining the project’s origins. He observed that there are limited opportunities to teach sustainability accounting in existing accounting programmes, yet there is increasing interest from students as well as a growing need for qualified professionals to undertake sustainability accounting as part of their roles; and the increasing requirements for sustainability reporting. These factors plus an opportunity to work with specialists in online education, particularly gamification, led to the development of the student-led learning platform. The platform is meant to be an extra-curricular learning opportunity, thereby circumventing institutional constraints relating to the rigidity of the accounting curriculum.  This collaborative project involves four higher education institutions (Universidad Burgos Spain; Leuphana University Lüneburg, Germany; Università degli Studi di Trento, Italy; Montpellier Business School, France), experts in digital education (Gestionet, Spain), and DIRSE, an association of sustainability professionals.  

Nicolás proceeded to guide us through the development of the learning platform, the content and pedagogical strategies – particularly gamification – to build learners competencies about sustainability accounting. The development of the platform is still ongoing, but already through a series of online courses plus in-person meetings with other students in France, Italy and Spain, students have had an opportunity to learn and to enhance their networks as part of the piloting of the project.  

Insights from Nicolás were complemented by contributions from David, a sustainability professional acting as reviewer of content for the programme. David shared his views on the importance of the programme and the high quality of materials offered to students (on topics including the Anthropocene and history of sustainability accounting), appreciating how they are meant to ensure that future accounting professionals are equipped to fulfil their roles. Finally, we heard from two students, Anna and Mario, who shared their own experiences of self-directed learning as part of the pilot programme. Anna observed that participating in the course enabled her to learn more about key concepts such as materiality and sustainability accounting. Mario observed that enjoyed the gamification elements of the programme as it provides an interesting way to integrate understanding.  Anna and Mario also emphasised the benefits of combining their self-directed learning with the opportunity to meet students and staff from the project.  

Following this rich set of insights from our speakers, responses to questions raised points regarding preferred approaches to learning across different generations and the importance of in-person interaction alongside digital learning. Taken together, this event provided a chance to learn about a novel cross-institutional extra-curricular learning programme. While many of us might consider education to be firmly situated in one’s institution and curriculum, this programme highlights the opportunities for communities of academics, professionals, and students to learn about sustainability accounting beyond traditional boundaries. We look forward to learning how the programme progresses in the years to come. The platform is planned to be officially launched in fall 2025. If you would like to know more about the Account4Eco project, please sign up for the project newsletter here https://a4ge.eu/newsletter/.  

Many thanks to Nicolás, David, Anna and Mario for their insights and time in our first multi-perspectives event. 

Please join us for our final ECoP event for 2023-24. On 26th August 2024, we will be running an in-person ECoP workshop ‘Innovative pedagogical practices to embed sustainability in the accounting curriculum’ at the University of St Andrews Business School. The workshop, which will offer the opportunity to experiment with two different original pedagogies, precedes the 34th International Congress on Social and Environmental Accounting Research.