Sustainability has become economic and strategic imperative with potential to create opportunities and risks for businesses, says Prof Zabihollah Rezaee at his lecture Business Sustainability Research, Education and Practice at UIC on 19 December.

Prof Rezaee is the Thompson-Hill Chair of Excellence, PhD coordinator and Professor of Accountancy at the University of Memphis, the USA.

He explained business sustainability theories and best practice, in addition to presenting research opportunities in business sustainability performance, reporting as well as assurance.

He told the audience that business sustainability is advancing from the greenwashing and branding to business imperative as investors demand, regulators require, and companies report their sustainability performance.

A decade ago less than 50 companies released sustainability reports and now more than 12,000 global public companies disclose their financial economic sustainability performance, as well as non-financial environmental, social and governance, and ethics sustainability performance information.

His lecture also discussed the integration of sustainability education into the accounting and business curricula.

Prof Stella Cho, Dean of DBM, presents a souvenir to Prof Rezaee

Prof Rezaee published a book called Corporate Sustainability: Integrating Performance and Reporting, in November 2012, which won the 2013 Axiom Gold Award in the category of Business Ethics.

Prof Rezaee and DBM staff members

Reporter: Hazel Liang (DBM)
Photographer: Wang Keyan (ACCT, Year 3), Sherry Wang (DBM)
Editor: Deen He, Samuel Burguess
(from MPRO)