Changing corporate accountability Increasingly, the accounting programs being taught by universities delve into how organisations might account for the various social and environmental impacts caused by their operations. However, two decades ago it would have been extremely uncommon for an accounting program to consider, in any real detail, how to account for such impacts. So what has influenced this change? Accounting is an ever-evolving process. As community expectations about how organisations should operate change, accounting and accounting education practices will also typically change. Communities now seem to be very much more focused on the social and environmental impacts of organisations, and they expect organisations to be socially and environmentally responsible. The managers of organisations know that, as time goes by, organisations have to continually improve their social and environmental reporting practices, and universities have begun to respond to this change. In terms of whether an accounting program should teach students how to do social and environmental accounting, this is a matter of opinion. If we accept that organisations should be accountable for their social and environmental performance, then accounting programs should arguably provide education and training in this area. You might like to investigate the extent of social and environmental accounting in the educational program that you are currently enrolled within.