by Nicolas | Apr 9, 2025 | Sin categoría
On March 21, the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Burgos hosted an insightful seminar titled “Vision of Sustainability Reporting from the Practice of a Listed Company”. The keynote speaker was Nuria Rodríguez Peinado, Director of Environment and Social Responsibility at Naturgy. This event brought together students and lecturers eager to deepen their understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved in integrating sustainability into business strategies.
Organized by the Erasmus+ Account4GreenEco Project in collaboration with the Master in Sustainability Reporting and Assurance at the University of Burgos, the seminar explored key practical aspects of sustainability reporting. Rodríguez Peinado emphasized the growing importance of this practice as a vital tool for businesses to communicate their commitment to sustainable development. She discussed how Naturgy, as a publicly traded company, addresses the need for transparency while adhering to international standards parrticularly the European Sustainability Reporting Standards, mandated by the EU.
Rodríguez Peinado noted that the commitment to sustainability not only meets regulatory requirements but also serves as an opportunity to enhance corporate reputation and create added value for shareholders and society. She also touched upon the challenges businesses face when embedding sustainability into their operations. She highlighted the importance of fostering a corporate culture that values social and environmental impact, alongside investing in technology and training to accurately measure and report relevant indicators.
The Erasmus+ Project Account4GreenEco, through initiatives like this, continues to demonstrate its commitment to educating students as future professionals equipped to tackle 21st-century challenges with ethical and responsible approaches.
by Nicolas | Jan 21, 2025 | Sin categoría
The European Accounting Association (EAA) organized a Sustainability Reporting Standards Education workshop in conjunction with the EFRAG and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
Four key academic speakers were invited to participate to share their experiences in teaching sustainability accounting. Our project member, Carlos Larrinaga, from the University of Burgos, was one of these key speakers. Carlos reflected on long-standing experiences of some academic communities, such as the Centre for Social and Environmental Accounting Research (CSEAR). He also introduced novel initiatives that seek to promote sustainability accounting education, making a special reference to the Account4GreenEco Project and the learning platform it is developing to foster the embeddedness of sustainability accounting education in university curricula.
Members from the three main sustainability reporting standards setters (EFRAG, ISSB and GRI) also participated in this event to share their views on the implications of their standards for accounting education.
The event was held on January 20-21, 2025, at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management (Germany).
by Nicolas | Dec 3, 2024 | Sin categoría
On 29 November 2024, the Spanish Association of University Lecturers of Accounting (Asociación Española de Profesores Universitarios de Contabilidad – ASEPUC) organized, in collaboration with the Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, the first workshop on ‘University and Accounting Profession’. The workshop provided a space to debate the most critical accounting challenges from an academic and professional approach.
The coordinator of the Account4GreenEco project, Nicolás García Torea from the University of Burgos, participated in this conference as an invited speaker at the first round table, together with María Dolores Urrea, from the Spanish Accounting Regulator (Instituto de Contabilidad y Auditoría de Cuentas – ICAC) and Auditing Institute (ICAC), and Ramón Pueyo Viñuales, head of sustainability and corporate governance services at KPMG. This round table reflected on the need to incorporate the study of sustainability reporting and verification in university curricula. This issue is one of the challenges that the Account4GreenEco project is trying to address through the development of its online training platform and its activities with students and professors. The project partner, University of Burgos, has extensive experience on this matter, with the implementation of the first Spanish Official Master on Sustainability Reporting and Assurance.
In addition to discussing the integration of sustainability information in curricula, the conference also addressed other issues relevant to accounting education, research, and practice, such as artificial intelligence, the employability of graduates, and the professionalization of the work of accountants.
The conference, which was attended by more than 80 people from 19 Spanish universities, was also attended by the president of the ICAC, Santiago Durán Domínguez, and professionals from large auditing firms such as KPMG and Deloitte, and members of the Register of Accounting Economists and the Institute of Chartered Accountants.
by Nicolas | Nov 13, 2024 | Sin categoría
A group of 23 students from the four universities participating in the Project (MBS from France, Leuphana University from Germany, Università degli Studi di Trento from Italy, and the Universidad de Burgos from Spain) have participated in the second Teaching Activity of the Project, hosted the University of Leuphana (Germany), from November 5 to 8, 2024.
In this teaching activity, the students could test the first and second of the three modules that will be integrated into the learning platform the Project is designing. In so doing, the Project seeks to improve their knowledge of sustainability information, as well as to validate the materials it is producing.
The student group also attended seminars given by Dr. Frank Dubielzig, Sustainability Director of Hapag-Lloyd AG, and PD Dr. Timur Sevincer from the Institute of Sustainability Psychology at the University of Leuphana. In these seminars, participants could learn more about the role of sustainability information in the design of sustainable corporate strategies, as well as the interrelationship between sustainability and psychology, respectively.
Following this meeting, the Project is entering the final phase of the development of the platform, which will be tested in its entirety at the third teaching activity of the Project, which the University of Burgos will organize in September 2025.
by Nicolas | Oct 14, 2024 | Sin categoría
The University of Burgos (UBU) ‘s Master of Sustainability Reporting and Assurance has organised a practice-oriented seminar. The guest speaker was María Eugenia García Rincón, head of Communication and CSR at Aquavall and regional delegate of DIRSE, associated partner of the Account4GreenEco project.
The Master of Sustainability Reporting and Assurance at UBU collaborates directly with our project to promote dissemination and awareness about the growing relevance of sustainability accounting for corporate professionals. As part of its syllabus, the Master organises a set of seminars given by experienced professionals in the sustainability accounting field.
María Eugenia García Rincón shared with students her extensive knowledge on how to design sustainability strategies for companies. She emphasised the importance of communicating those strategies properly through sustainability reports, which are not just a formality, but a key instrument for firms, as an accountability tool, and a mechanism they have to produce to comply with new requirements set by the European Union.
