When PurePath Advisory invited me to join their latest ESG webinar (which you can watch here), alongside hosts Mark Cowlin and Neil Campbell, the audience came ready with a single burning question:

“Where do accountants fit in the new world of ESG, sustainability, and data-driven transformation?”

And the answer, as the discussion made clear, is simple:

Accountants aren’t just part of the sustainability conversation, they’re at the centre of it.

Setting the stage: why this conversation matters now

Mark Cowlin opened the session by sharing what he’s seeing across industries:

• ESG and sustainability have surged from “nice to have” to “strategic priority.”

• Finance teams are suddenly at the pointy end of the arrow in this transformation.

• Regulatory complexity is rising, but data — not policy — is the biggest blocker.

Neil Campbell echoed the same reality. After decades working in transformation and risk in financial services, he summed it up perfectly:

All transformation starts with regulation. Regulation starts with reporting. Reporting starts with data. That’s why accountants must lead.

And he’s right.

A global baseline has emerged, and it speaks the language of finance

I shared with the audience that sustainability reporting has shifted dramatically in the last two years. The ISSB’s IFRS S1 and S2 have become the de-facto global baseline, with over half of global GDP now aligned to a common sustainability reporting framework.

This matters for one reason:

Sustainability is now financially material.

It drives decisions on:

• capital allocation

• valuations

• insurance

• financing

• supply-chain selection

• long-term resilience

This is why the ISSB standards feel familiar to accountants — they’re built on the same logic, discipline, and judgment frameworks that underpin financial reporting.

We’re not in a “green initiative” era anymore.
We’re in a financially-integrated sustainability era.

Why accountants are perfectly placed to lead

This was one of the strongest points of agreement between me, Neil, and Mark. Three reasons stood out:

1. ESG is now about data quality, something accountants excel at

Carbon accounting is essentially:

• data gathering

• data structuring

• applying methods consistently

• producing assured outputs

As I said on the call:

Carbon accounting is basically bookkeeping with a different output.

2. Businesses trust accountants more than any other profession

When things go wrong, CEOs don’t call consultants first.
They call their accountant.

ESG is no different. Trust and assurance matter now more than ever.

3. The commercial opportunity is enormous

Neil quoted Deloitte’s estimate of a $12 trillion global ESG advisory opportunity.

I shared another insight:

• Many accounting clients are already paying consultants for SECR reporting, carbon accounting, or sustainability baselines.

• Most firms don’t realise this is happening.

• It’s work that accountants can deliver better, with higher trust and lower friction.

Adding a simple sustainability report into a year-end pack is often all it takes to unlock these conversations.

A practical starting point for small practices

One of the audience questions was:

“I run a small accounting firm. Where do I start, for my own ESG and as a service?”

Here’s the simple playbook I shared:

Step 1: Start with your own carbon footprint

Not to be perfect, but to understand the process.

Step 2: Add a one-page sustainability report to your accounts pack

Monthly or year-end. Baseline first, sophistication later.

Step 3: Build sustainability into your existing services

Not as a separate department, but as an extension:

• bookkeeping → carbon-tagged transactions

• management accounts → environmental KPIs

• audit → assurance-ready sustainability data

• tax → capex planning, incentives, grants

• advisory → net-zero planning and governance

Step 4: Use technology to automate the heavy lifting

Tools like neoeco remove 90% of the manual work by:

• importing ledger data

• mapping transactions to impact factors

• structuring messy source files (energy bills, mileage logs, travel data)

• generating assured carbon baselines

• surfacing hotspots, suppliers, anomalies

As I said:

“With the right tools, you can get to a carbon baseline in 3–4 clicks.”

Step 5: Start conversations with clients

The first unlock is always this one question:

“Out of curiosity, who currently does your carbon accounting or SECR reporting?”

Most accountants are shocked by the answer.

For accountants in industry: the hidden career opportunity

We closed with a message that resonated deeply with finance professionals on the call:

Organisations believe they must hire sustainability teams.

But more often than not, the right person to lead the ESG transformation is already in the building — the accountant.

If you’re a CFO, FC, FP&A lead, or management accountant:

• you understand data

• you manage risk

• you work with the board

• you drive controls and assurance

• you already own the systems

• you already steer strategic planning

You don’t need to be a climate scientist.
You just need to put your hand up.

AI, automation, and the future of accounting-led sustainability

We eventually got to AI — 47 minutes into the webinar, to Mark’s surprise.

AI isn’t replacing accountants.
It’s replacing the manual labour accountants hate.

Inside neoeco, AI is used for:

• structuring unstructured data

• mapping transactions

• building LCA models

• automating impact calculations

• sentiment analysis for materiality assessments

But the core message was clear:

AI can do the graft. Accountants must do the judgment.

Human-in-the-loop will define the future of sustainability reporting.

So, where should you start? One action. Today.

We ended the webinar with a clear takeaway:

Take one action. Any action. But start.

Neil said it best:

If you wait for perfect, you’ll wait forever. Start now — with whatever data you have — and improve from there.

And my final message to the accountants on the call was:

Have a conversation with a client. That one conversation will change everything.

The next decade of sustainability will be led by finance teams, auditors, advisers, CFOs, and accountants.

Not because ESG is becoming financial,
but because finance has the skills, systems, and trust to lead it.