Value Accounting Network founded
15 Jul, 2021
A group of nine initiatives has founded the Value Accounting Network. They share the ambition that the value provided by and experienced by people and nature must be included in all decision-making.
The network defines value accounting as: "The collection, calibration, and use of information about the relative value that an organization creates, preserves, or erodes for its stakeholders, using common units. This information is used when making decisions for a variety of purposes."
The group has published agreed statements of commonality:
- We firmly believe it is vital for businesses, finance, and governments to base decisions on value accounting.
- We aim to modernize accounting to transform governance practices, decision making, and reporting.
- We believe that we need generally accepted principles to account for value.
- We believe that integrated thinking, and a holistic systems-based approach is essential.
- We embrace and support the concept of ‘capital’ reflecting stocks that can change over time and that underpin increasing or decreasing flows of benefits to people, communities, the environment, and the economy.
- We recognize the importance of accounting for holistic value creation, the value of impacts and dependencies on different capitals.
- We recognize that the value to society (inside-out) and value to the entity (outside-in) are both essential to assess and report value.
- We believe that the trade-offs between capitals and between stakeholders must be specified and addressed in decision making.
- We recognize the importance of existing efforts, and we are building on the standards, frameworks and definitions that have already been agreed.
The Value Balancing Alliance, one of the founding members of the Value Accounting Network, makes the following information available on its website:
