From Accountants to Architects: The New Face of Sustainability Reporting

When most people think about sustainability reporting, they picture ESG teams, consultants, or maybe even marketing. But anyone who's actually worked inside a mid-market or enterprise finance team knows the truth:

It’s the group accountants, finance managers, and internal auditors who are being quietly handed the keys to the sustainability agenda.

IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, and their local variations like the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) and Australia's ASRS, are formalising what’s already happening in practice.

Sustainability disclosures are becoming financial disclosures. The implications are enormous, and if you sit in finance, they land squarely on your desk.

Compliance Now Lives in the Ledger

These new standards aren’t just about telling a better ESG story. They’re about accountability, consistency, and integration with financial controls.

• Climate risk isn’t hypothetical, it's now expected to be measured in the same terms as interest rate risk or FX exposure.

• Governance disclosures don’t belong in a standalone report, they should align with your audit committee charter and control frameworks.

• Sustainability data isn’t standalone, it’s subject to the same scrutiny, assurance, and audit trail as your Balance Sheet and P&L.

  
  

This shift moves sustainability out of the marketing deck and into the internal control environment. And that means it belongs to finance.

The Quiet Evolution of Finance Roles

I’ve spoken to dozens of finance leaders over the past few months, from FTSE-listed group controllers to internal auditors in family-owned mid-market firms. The pattern is clear:

Many didn’t ask for this role. But they’ve become the go-to people for “pulling it all together.”

Why? Because we already know how to wrangle data, build internal control systems, and survive audits. We understand what it means to sign off on numbers. And increasingly, that’s what sustainability reporting requires.

The new skillset isn’t just carbon accounting, it’s materiality, scenario planning, and linking non-financial data to financial consequences. It’s a new frontier for finance, and those who lean in will become the architects of how businesses manage sustainability risks and opportunities at the core.

What This Means For You

If you’re a group accountant or finance manager reading this, here’s the reality: You’re no longer just closing the books. You’re now:

• Supporting materiality assessments and validating sustainability risks.

• Mapping emissions and metrics to business units, cost centres, and ledgers.

• Designing controls for non-financial disclosures and making them audit-ready.

• Translating strategy into disclosures that regulators, investors, and auditors trust.

This is not a temporary bolt-on. It’s a permanent shift.

Finance Is Becoming Strategic (Again)

In the early 2000s, finance teams were asked to step up during the age of digital transformation and SOX. Now, it’s sustainability. And once again, the finance office is being called to lead, not just to report, but to influence strategy.

This is our moment to shape how sustainability is operationalised, governed, and ultimately embedded in how value is created and preserved.

Final Thought

If you're feeling overwhelmed, you're not alone. But don’t underestimate the value you bring. The skills you’ve developed in financial reporting, controls, and audit are not just relevant, they’re essential to this next chapter.

The finance function is being redefined. And those of us “in the trenches” have more influence than ever before.

Let’s make it count.