Adding Environmental, Social, and Governance Reporting to an Introductory Accounting Course

As more firms are focusing on sustainability issues, ESG reporting is quickly becoming a beneficial topic for business and accounting students to understand. This learning strategy provides faculty with materials that can be used to introduce ESG reporting in an introductory accounting course. This paper discusses the background on ESG reporting and summarizes the accounting profession’s involvement in compiling and reviewing these reports. The teaching materials include general suggestions and comments, example ESG factors, example ESG disclosures, sustainability accounting scenarios with discussion suggestions, resource links for ESG reporting frameworks and assessment, an example reading assignment, multiple-choice questions, and PowerPoint slides. Sustainability and ESG reporting are topics of increasing importance to stakeholders. Exposing business and accounting students to these topics early into their education can provide them with a foundational knowledge that will surely be built upon in their upper-level courses and eventual careers.