# Participative and active teaching approaches in accounting as a vehicle for emancipation: learning how to evaluate non-financial information

Rima El Sayed, Nicolas Antheaume

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Rima El Sayed, Nicolas Antheaume. Participative and active teaching approaches in accounting as a vehicle for emancipation: learning how to evaluate non-financial information. Finance Contrôle Stratégie, 2025, NS-17, 10.4000/1411w. hal-05100015

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Participative and active teaching approaches in
accounting as a vehicle for emancipation: learning
how to evaluate non-financial information

*Les Pedagogies Participatives Et Actives En Comptabilite, Vecteur*

D'emancipation : Apprentissage De La Mesure De L'information Extra-Financiere

Rima EL SAYED and Nicolas ANTHEAUME

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URL: https://journals.openedition.org/fcs/13186

DOI: 10.4000/1411w

ISSN: 2261-5512

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Les Pedagogies Participatives Et Actives En Comptabilite, Vecteur D'emancipation : Apprentissage De
La Mesure De L'information Extra-Financiere - URL : https://journals.openedition.org/fcs/13349 [fr]

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Rima EL SAYED and Nicolas ANTHEAUME, "Participative and active teaching approaches in accounting as a vehicle for emancipation: learning how to evaluate non-financial information", *Finance Contrôle Stratégie* [Online], NS-17 | 2025, Online since 01 April 2025, connection on 05 June 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/fcs/13186; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/1411w

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# Participative and active teaching approaches in accounting as a vehicle for emancipation: learning how to evaluate non-financial information

Les Pedagogies Participatives Et Actives En Comptabilite, Vecteur

D'emancipation : Apprentissage De La Mesure De L'information Extra-Financiere

Rima EL SAYED and Nicolas ANTHEAUME

## 1. Introduction

<footnote n="1">1. This article should be read as an essay on the teaching of Accounting, Auditing and Control (AAC) which has a scope that extends, more specifically, to the dissemination of non-financial information. Here, we will advocate for an active and participative teaching approach that is particularly appropriate for a field in which knowledge is in considerable flux and practitioners and educators are only slightly ahead of students – with the exception of a few specialists whose numbers are insufficient to address the needs of the whole community. If we describe knowledge as “in flux” in this field, it is because the law has evolved extremely rapidly in four years and the first reports on sustainability, in accordance with the CSRD¹, will be published in 2025 based on data for 2024; with all that this will entail for opportunities to augment this field.</footnote>

<footnote n="2">2. Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) responsibility has, undeniably, become a major issue for the field of AAC. New roles, tasks and tools are emerging. Initial feedback from professionals tasked with managing integrated reporting shows that this role should not be reduced to a goal of compliance. It requires reflection and fundamental strategic analysis, taking a risk-based approach that aims to transform</footnote>
business models. This new order could potentially transform professions in the world of finance and performance measurement and management (Rodríguez et al, 2019).

3 This transformation means that accounting and control experts' skills – one aspect of the authority that will enable them to respond effectively to stakeholders' information and expertise needs (Zarifian, 2009) – will need to be reappraised, iteratively and reflexively. New forms of production and the disruptions they are bringing about in the AAC sphere mean that stakeholders' needs are evolving constantly, as already highlighted by Mévellec and Meyssonnier (2016).

4 In this context, it is essential to consider the consequences for training accounting and control experts. Authors such as Thomson and Bebbington (2004) put forward a reflection on the teaching of accountancy. This goes beyond the social and environmental scope. We will resume and use their analysis here. In their article, drawing on the work of Freire (1996) and Illich (1971), the authors question the relationship between knowledge and the ways students acquire knowledge. They compare two teaching approaches. The first, described as *banking*, is to deposit knowledge in passive students, in the way one would deposit money in a bank. This entails a highly codified and top-down transmission of knowledge which contains hidden content intended to reproduce a capitalist world. The second approach is described as *dialogical*. This conception of teaching involves students in generating content and producing knowledge through a more horizontal and interactive approach. These same authors (Thomson and Bebbington, 2005) liken the production of non-financial information to an educational process through which organisations educate their internal and external stakeholders in how to understand previously unknown or little-known events. According to these authors, it is therefore appropriate to evaluate non-financial accounting from a pedagogical perspective, adopting the transformational aims of the approach Freire advocated (1996), and to make recommendations on producing this information. In summary, the pedagogical approach should echo an accounting approach that aspires to make stakeholders more qualified to understand a company's financial, environmental and social performance.

5 The approach that Thomson and Bebbington advocate is compatible with the so-called active and creative pedagogy approaches presented in the 2022 special edition of *Finance Contrôle Stratégie*, notably through the use of Freire's research in the publication's introductory article (Vandangeon-Derumez and Saives, 2022). These approaches put students in a more active position, where they take part in generating knowledge, develop an ability to think critically and objectively and cultivate their ability to take action to transform society.

6 In the first section of this article, we will identify the purpose of active and participative methods as presented in the literature on accounting, by establishing a link with reference literature in the field of pedagogy.

7 In the second section, given a context of knowledge in flux, we will identify the priority subjects distinguishing financial accounting from non-financial accounting and the ways we can make these two strands interact. We identify the challenges this raises. We will then explain our viewpoint on the relevance of active and participative methods in such a context, linking the issues to methods.

8 In the third section, we will compare new views of accounting, the corresponding social and environmental issues and the potential implications for training, taking a
dialogical approach. Then, we will present and discuss two teaching experiments that use this approach.

## 2. Purpose of active and participative methods and their relevance for the evolving accounting and control profession

9. We would argue that traditional “technicist” pedagogical approaches (Martineau and Calcei, 2019) no longer meet the needs of AAC training. These “top-down” methods – in which the teacher is the sole holder of knowledge and the student the unadulterated and passive recipient – contrast with active methods whereby students are participants in their education, in the sense that they contribute to developing knowledge. The diminishing relevance of technicist approaches can be explained by the accelerated evolution of AAC roles. With the advent of electronic invoicing, the rise of IT and machine learning, and blockchain, various tasks are now automated or have significantly changed in character. Examples include keeping accounts, data authentication, tax and social security declarations, automated performance management systems, and costing (Meyssonnier and Mevelle, 2016; Desplebin et al., 2018).

10. More specifically, in the sustainable development sphere, new concepts have emerged which are still developing (such as double materiality, extended value chain analysis and connectivity between the financial and the non-financial).

11. Because of these developments, accounting and control professionals are no longer required for any tasks that can be automated. They must develop their profession towards activities that place a greater focus on consultancy and analysis rather than on standardised and repetitive tasks (Gérard and Rihouet, 2023, 2024; Desplebin, Lux and Petit, 2019)². At the same time, the speed of technological and societal developments is strengthening the ephemeral nature of technical skills acquired during training, highlighting the need to train accounting and control professionals to analyse and resolve problems and not to repeat tasks corresponding to standardised technical knowledge.

12. While these technicist approaches may be appropriate when it comes to the acquisition of static knowledge, they are no longer in phase with the skills accounting and control professionals need to exercise their roles. Social and environmental accounting are having a strong influence on these developments.

13. This brings us back to the viewpoint expressed by Bebbington (1997) and Thomson and Bebbington (2004, 2005) which places as much importance on “how” to teach as “what” to teach. Bebbington (1997) specifically analysed interrelations around a trilogy of factors (the teaching of accounting, the practice of accounting and social responsibility). Teaching, as the pivotal factor, plays a vital role in terms of emancipating future generations so they can improve accountability towards society. Thomson and Bebbington (2004) contrasted a technicist, top-down teaching approach with a dialogical approach. The latter is characterised by (1) the active role of the student, which is not reduced to simply parroting what the teacher says, and (2) the dynamic purpose of teaching, where the teacher and student “co-explore” a problem.
14 A more recent article supports the reflexive approach (Zundel, 2013) which ties up with the aim of learner emancipation as it encourages the idea of using information supplied to contribute to knowledge creation. Zundel (2013) emphasises the advantages of such an approach in relation to its potential to encourage the student to adapt constantly to a changing world and to conduct ongoing diagnosis in a recursive loop that will make it possible to develop appropriate solutions for each new problem. This continuous reconstruction contrasts with an approach that involves finding a ready-made solution as quickly as possible.

15 According to Thomson and Bebington (2004), this is what gives learning a transformative, and therefore emancipatory role.

16 Accountancy researchers have drawn their inspiration from Freire's work (1996) on experiential learning, with a view to transforming the future, and an interactive approach between educators and learners. For Freire (2006 p.40), "teaching does not mean transferring knowledge but creating opportunities for producing and constructing it".

17 Drawing on Freire's writing, Thomson and Bebbington propose a three-stage dialogical approach, with each stage comprising key tasks to be completed, requiring the student's involvement. In the first stage, the training programme should be framed to make students ask themselves questions about how society functions, the role of accounting, and how they will earn a living in the future and apply an ethos of sustainable development. At the end of this stage students must devise a tangible and time-bound proposal for exploring a given topic, and an investigative method that considers the relevant stakeholders to question. The second stage involves delivering the programme through a series of dialogical sessions between the students and the educator. Each session corresponds to a topic identified in the first stage. At each meeting, students set out their personal understanding of the topic (personal coding). To develop a more generalised and more abstract perspective, they listen to their peers and discuss ideas with the tutor (decoding individual presentations to establish a shared coding). The objective is to build awareness that these topics are problems that need to be resolved through critical analysis, not through immutable bodies of knowledge. The third stage focuses on action. Students must put into practice the solutions that emerged from the dialogical sessions in the second stage and test their feasibility. This is a circular process, combining action and reflexivity on the effects of action. So-called dialogical education recognises that over the three stages of the educational process, the stakeholders involved – educators and students – play a part in the wider world. Their actions are likely to be shaped and challenged by the knowledge they have already acquired. If their knowledge evolves, it is highly likely that the nature of their actions will evolve, bringing them to re-examine the first stage again, reflexively.

18 This training approach highlights the way in which knowledge influences action and how actions themselves produce new knowledge which could in return modify actions. This is how a link is established between training and the ability to influence the world. A special edition of *Finance Contrôle Stratégie* explores other options consistent with this type of teaching approach, which could be used in management training. It covers experiential education and learning through error (Paulus et al., 2022), dissensus (Martineau et al., 2022), the search for authenticity through ludo-pedagogy (Jamin and Zouhal, 2022), and learning autonomy (Bourgain, 2022).
19 In our view, the constantly shifting, non-financial accounting environment, which we present in the next section, would appear to be particularly suited to this type of teaching approach.

## 3. A shifting non-financial accounting environment in search of appropriate pedagogical methods

20 In the context of non-financial accounting, there are three topics we consider to be worthy of priority attention. We have chosen them because they have informed discussions on the form that social and environmental reporting should take and have been promoted by the European standards body, in the exposure draft on the general principles of sustainability information (ESRS 1 – General Principles). The first topic is the link between financial accounting and non-financial accounting, which raises questions about materiality and the link between the financial and the non-financial. The second topic is the scope of analysis defined for non-financial accounting and its implications in terms of responsibility, which raises questions about companies’ responsibilities throughout the value chain. The third topic is trust in the information published, which raises questions about the characteristics of information likely to establish this trust (relevance, accurate representation, comparability, verifiability, understandability).

### 3.1. The link between the financial and the non-financial

21 Non-financial accounting is the language of corporate responsibility. It complements the language of business and financial accounting. There have been discussions about the link between these two forms of accounting. Was it necessary to reform financial accounting or should new standards for new type of accounting be developed? The second alternative was adopted in the end, as evidenced by the multitude of standardisation initiatives and actors (the IFRS through the ISSB), ISO 26000, the Global Compact, the GRI, the EFRAG³ (tasked by the European Commission). These initiatives do not entail the same levels of constraint. International standards still come within soft law, with variable degrees of prescription depending on the standards. The European initiative comes within hard law. It has resulted in a directive approved by the European Parliament and the European Council. The nature, assessment and mechanisms for managing this information are evolving constantly and currently in the process of being adopted by parties responsible for transposing standards nationally and applying them to companies. As a result, a large number of texts and documents are being published by European authorities working on current standardisation projects, by authorities in member countries responsible for applying standards within national law, by the bodies representing the accounting profession, and by companies themselves, which are publishing their first reports.

22 These initiatives do not share an identical view of what constitutes relevant information. Should it cover what is material for business owners (and which can affect a company's financial situation), or what is material for society and the environment (corporate actions likely to infringe human rights or harm natural environments)? Materiality is often defined with reference to the historical underlying principle of the obligation to publish accounting information. This obligation relates back to the
obligation of transparency which requires a company to publish any information that may have a positive or negative impact on its financial health (DUHAMEL, FASTERLING and REFAIT-ALEXANDRE, 2009). To this end, consideration is given to the ways in which the environmental crisis could have negative financial consequences for a company (e.g. extreme climatic events disrupting supply chains and damaging facilities), or potentially positive ones (e.g. an opportunity to sell buildings that are more resistant to extreme weather events). This illustrates the perspective of the neoclassical theories which provide a basis for international standards (ISSB). This view of materiality corresponds to the principle of financial materiality.

23

Materiality is doubled from the moment it includes impact materiality, that is, the consequent, immediate or potential impacts of a company's activities, and its entire value chain, on its ecological and societal environment. These activities may contribute positively or negatively to European sustainable development objectives (Baumüller and Sopp, 2021). To illustrate, if a company in the agri-foods sector uses pesticides, including those responsible for killing bees, this choice has a negative impact on biodiversity (and on the health of agricultural workers). The European Union's body of scientific knowledge and political ambitions justify consideration of this impact. The company must therefore publish information on these activities, not just to quantify the impacts but to report on the measures it will take to reduce them.

24

The principle of double materiality adds a new perspective. It changes the way the company is scrutinised by placing equal focus on both financial and impact materiality.

25

Double materiality also shakes up the principle of accountability in accounting by breaking away from the accepted perspective. We move from a shareholder-centric perspective, according to which the company is accountable to its shareholders (business perspective), to an ethics-centred perspective (Capron and Quairel-Lanoizelée, 2016) in which the company is accountable to the society where it is able to grow thanks to drawing on the human and natural resources there. This idea supports the works of Richard (2012, 2014) who introduced the notions of environmental costs not borne by companies through environmental taxation (inspired by Pigou, 1920) and the social costs of private enterprise (Kapp, 1950 (in Richard and Plot, 2014); (Richard, 2012). Introducing the notions of three types of circuit between human, financial and natural capital enabled Jacques Richard to initiate the concept of measuring corporate accountability towards the external world (nature and humans). He set out the premises of double materiality by identifying two pathways: “inside-out” accounting (impact materiality) versus “outside-in” accounting (financial materiality).

26

Double materiality cannot be reduced to mere compliance with a published standard. It requires managerial change, stimulating a new order for accounting; and as it determines long-term choices, it also requires strategic reflection, risk analysis, and action plans and new mechanisms for managing and measuring performance (Abhayawansa, S., 2022). As a consequence, it is bringing about transformation in the professions concerned and a review of skills in the field of accounting, auditing and control.

27

Once the company has set out its business model, the EFRAG's guidance recommends beginning to construct non-financial reports with a double materiality assessment. This will provide the basis for developing and revising policies and action plans, along with objectives, then communication on indicators for steering these policies and information about the resources committed. As far as the resources committed are
concerned, the European standards body has introduced the concept of connectivity between financial statements. For example, any financial item published in a sustainability report must be explicitly identifiable in the financial statements.

28

The purpose of double materiality training is to get students to understand these changes in accountability and to establish the foundations of what is material from a financial perspective and what is material from an ecological and societal perspective. Dialogical teaching methods appear to us to be particularly suitable in this situation. For example, for the first stage, educators could suggest broaching double materiality through an analysis of a product's manufacturing process – from the extraction of raw materials to the end of life –, identifying different stages on a geographical map, the costs to the business, the social and environmental impacts and any potential threats to this activity. The educator could suggest resources to introduce this topic (documentaries, reports, podcasts, press publications). Students and educators could then agree on a list of questions to discuss. The second stage takes the form of a series of group sessions and student presentations, followed by discussions, until responses to the questions raised are suggested. In the third stage, students could read non-financial reports and make an informed judgement about the degree of transparency in relation to double materiality.

29

During this process, the educator could refer to works highlighting the necessity of reviewing accounting principles dating from the 19th century and of adapting these to make them more relevant (Richards and Nicholls, 2021; Nicholls, 2020). According to the authors, to make the transition from the current accounting approach to a more relevant approach, public bodies, financial analysts, asset managers, accounting, financial and political authorities and civil society must all be involved. The authors emphasise the importance of including the viewpoints of the last two categories in this transition (Nicholls, 2020). The challenge in this transition lies in diagnosing and measuring the new form of overall performance, incorporating financial criteria and accountability, ecological, social and ethical criteria. Traditionally, performance was defined almost exclusively by proprietors, as the sole holders of corporate governance powers. The task of defining the components of this new overall performance is now shared with stakeholders who are, primarily, external to the company. As an outcome, the choice of these criteria is no longer the exclusive domain of the company but is often the result of a dialogical process between the company and its stakeholders. To us, the dialogical teaching methods presented in the first section appear to be particularly suited to training students in a process of defining and reporting on performance, which is itself the outcome of a dialogical process. In some ways, this means replicating the way in which social and environmental performance are defined, through training.

## 3.2. Value chain analysis – extended legal, geographical and temporal responsibility

30

The second major topic in non-financial information concerns value chain analysis (VCA). This involves mapping the company's extended business model, to identify categories of stakeholder. Which stakeholders are directly influenced by and/or influence the company⁴, who are the users of non-financial information? The educator could also draw attention to silent stakeholders such as the natural world and animals
(Vinnari & Vinnari, 2022). VCA is about identifying the materiality issues associated with each stakeholder, each link in the chain and each interaction.

31

The notion of VCA contains widely used concepts from the field of innovation, through the design of innovative “products”, such as “green” or “fair trade”, intended to reduce ecological or social impacts throughout the value chain (Bonney et al, 2007).

32

Beyond compliance with the CSRD, VCA is consistent with a new view of governance characterised by an extended legal, geographical and temporal responsibility. Analysis of a company's non-financial performance therefore requires extended analysis and evaluation of its responsibility. It covers choices regarding product design and suppliers, how production is organised, client relations, and the implications for processing, recycling and disposing of its products, from the perspective of reducing any environmental and social impacts. This analysis should be based on quantified, spatialised and timed factors (short-, medium- and long-term).

33

Shared value chain mapping provides a useful technical foundation for measuring non-financial performance. By facilitating a continuous dual reading of data, combining the financial contribution and social and environmental contribution of different activities within the chain, it replaces juxtaposed readings of each contribution in isolation (Soosay et al., 2012). It also facilitates connectivity with financial statements (ESRS 1).

34

In addition to factors within the extended scope, VCA is used to evaluate new expressions of performance – cooperation, collaboration, trust – which characterise the company's relations with its value chain. For example, in the context of an overall performance management system (financial, environmental and social), the drivers for improving performance may require collaboration with a supplier much further upstream. Engineering and management partners have conducted numerous studies to analyse product life cycle. They point out the need for collaboration across the value chain, upstream and downstream of production systems (Mévellec and Perry, 2006). What is sought in the current context is to extend the scope of collaboration, horizontally in particular and more specifically between “competing” actors. As such, in situations where suppliers work with other clients, the company must work with its competitors to align the obligations it wants to establish with suppliers. Research demonstrates the need to include information that can be used to judge this “relational and transactional” performance within integrated reports (Abela, 2022).

35

Relational factors, and cooperation in particular, have been the focus of recent research drawing on the notion of *keystone actors* – for example, the SeaBos project. This case involved businesses in the maritime agri-foods sector which represent 10% of global fishing catches. The studies show how, collectively, these companies can have a significant influence. The notion of key actors refers to the concept of cooperation as a catalyst for stewardship – to support life on earth – which differs from the traditional corporate responsibility towards shareholders (Bebbington et al, 2019).

36

The added value emerging from this analysis relies on the quality and comprehensiveness of the information exchanged at each link in the chain, and the potential collaboration emerging from the more frequent and efficient interactions required due to the greater level of transparency “imposed” by the standard. Beyond issues of materiality, VCA is all the more important as it calls for cooperation between actors with different, even contradictory, characteristics and objectives. This analysis therefore promotes better transparency regarding governance methods along the
chain and helps to reduce imbalances in agency (Gleadle, P., Mantzari, E. and Phiri, O., 2019).

37

Many challenges are involved in mastering value chain analysis. First, it is essential to learn how to measure a company's impacts at every stage, regardless of its legal or geographical scope. Non-financial accounting, which involves collecting, processing and classifying information about impacts, and measuring them, performs these tasks over a scope that goes beyond operations conducted within the company. This extension to the scope is further complicated by the need to take account of current and future impacts linked to the specific interests of diverse stakeholders, over different timeframes. The impacts themselves may be of different and conflicting natures.

38

Next, learning how to conduct a value chain analysis requires skills and a tool for assessing measures intended to compensate for the problem of a simple transfer of responsibility, whereby negative externalities are merely passed on without being mitigated. This is the case with companies that contract their most polluting activities out, taking them outside of their traditional legal boundaries, even though they remain within the boundaries of their environmental responsibilities. This is the opposite of the underlying constituent principles of traditional accounting which are based on individualising performance.

39

The types of complexity encountered by non-financial accounting actors (legal and geographical extraterritoriality, the diversity of impacts to be addressed, the contradictory expectations of stakeholders and problems regarding transfer of responsibility) are the antithesis of what financial accounting was supposed to do within a legal scope restricted to past information and transactions.

40

To conclude this section, we would assert that to analyse a value chain, it is necessary to resolve problems, and to conceptualise and implement actions consistent with the dialogical methods presented in the first section.

### 3.3. Trust in non-financial information

41

The third major topic concerns trust. Since the introduction of the Grenelle II Law in 2010, the EU Non-financial Reporting Directive (2014) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (2015), the judicialization of non-financial information has accelerated, through international and national law. In France, the 2017 law on corporate duty of vigilance marked an important development in terms of moving from soft law to hard law. It was followed by the Pacte law in 2019 and the creation of the status of "mission led company" at national level, and by the Green Deal and Green Taxonomy at Europe level. Since May 2024, the duty of vigilance has also been written into European law through the CS3D directive (Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence).

42

What these texts have in common is the obligation of communication and transparency about corporate social and environmental commitments. Trust relates to the nature of these commitments, how they are monitored and the validity of data compared with the scientific knowledge on which they may be based. The texts of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards resulting from the CSRD, and the work involved in verifying data, are intended to instil trust in this information.
43

Despite the increasing judicialization of the form and content of non-financial information and its publication, there are still many ambiguous areas (Tixier, 2005) and sources of uncertainty (D'Ambrosio, 2020), in "an evolving regulatory environment" (Barraud de Lagerie et al, 2020). This assumes that information published has not yet been standardised and is therefore difficult to compare, which is not without impact when it comes to the trust recipients may have in this information.

44

Research has demonstrated the inadequate quality of integrated reports. Petruzzelli and Badia (2023), having attempted to compare reports using criteria they defined themselves (in the absence of established criteria), observe that it is still not possible to compare these reports. Other studies show that codes and principles for reading and analysing narrative statements in integrated reports need to be found, so that readers can make an objective judgement on the quality of information (Hussainey et Al-Najjar, 2011).

45

As F. Déjean (2021) emphasises, the current stage of constructing and publishing overall performance data, incorporating financial and non-financial statements, requires adaptations to operational practices and equipment to be made. This author raises the question of whether or not the information disseminated coherently and adequately represents all the issues involved in sustainable development. She points out that incorporating financial and non-financial information does not appear to be enough to establish this coherence. This observation is confirmed by Carpenter et al (2021) WHO HIGHLIGHT the need for appropriate tools for verifying non-financial information, in order to achieve an equivalent level of trust and credibility as there is for financial information. This requires measures to balance the distribution of governance powers between different stakeholders (Carpenter et al., 2021). The observations we have identified in the literature may be challenged when the first sustainability reports are published during 2025. It will therefore be necessary to use these initial documents as the basis for developing the lessons to be taught.

46

As far as training is concerned, the challenge is getting students to understand what it is that makes information credible and offering them tools and analysis grids to help them work out if data is reliable. The learning objective at this level is to define the limits of trust accorded to non-financial information and to analyse the possibility of verifying a report's compliance with a standard.

47

This learning process presents difficulties when it comes to criteria for defining the limits of trust, as these will not be the same as for those applied to financial accounting. This is particularly relevant in the case of the narrative statements which are often recommended for declarations about the resources the company has allocated to fulfil its social and ethical responsibilities (Moore, 2003). This is a major challenge for training. How can trainers support students with their understanding of the concept of a true and fair view as could be applicable to non-financial information? As in the other parts of the second section, we would argue that active and participative methods, named dialogical by Thomson and Bebbington (2004), are relevant.
# 4. The dialogical approach: application principles and experimentation

48 In this section we consider three aspects to renewing the mission of dialogical accounting and present and discuss two experiments that work on them.

## 4.1. Three aspects to renewing the view of accounting following a dialogical approach

49 The challenges and issues presented in the previous section show that there are multiple opportunities to rethink accounting, concentrating on three aspects.

50 - Dialogical: this aspect is highlighted in the literature (Thomson and Bebbington, 2005, page 517) in the description of how sustainable reporting works, with stakeholder involvement set out in different ways (identifying critical topics, questioning the company about how it manages performance and communicates in these critical areas). It has also been identified in value chain analysis which requires governance to be opened out to stakeholders.

51 - Processual: this aspect requires awareness of the incomplete nature of the knowledge creation process, which involves looking for problematic issues and appropriate solutions. This incomplete nature (Freire, 2006, p.66) fosters pragmatist reflexivity (Lorino, 2009) and problem-based learning (Vanddangeon-Derumez and Saives, 2022), encouraging students to raise questions and problems constantly, thereby opening the field to other questions and in this way creating knowledge through problems (Bourgain, 2022; Jamin and Zaoual, 2022).

52 - Emancipatory: emancipatory accounting promoting the goal of transformation through shared responsibility (the notion of double materiality). This aspect requires input to facilitate understanding of organisations as they evolve (Thomson and Bebbington, 2005). It takes as much effort to reproduce the prevailing ideology as it does to unmask it (Freire, 2006, p.112).

53 In the teaching of accounting, these aspects can be included in innovative ways, across the three key stages of the dialogical approach, namely programme, process and implementation (Thomson and Bebbington, 2004, p.613).

54 As far as the programme is concerned, the tutor's initial contribution is to introduce the base concepts. In our case, these concepts are those presented in the second section of this article. The programme is supplemented by data students have collected and the knowledge generated through interactions between students and the tutor. It is further enhanced by feedback on experiments conducted with students and others conducted by educators between two training sequences, to adapt and improve subsequent versions.

55 For the process, the tutor's responsibility becomes that of initiating dialogue and encouraging students to translate concepts into problems they face and that concern them. The process is therefore a combination of the tutor's or other expert's initial contribution and the initial research conducted by students, who take ownership of this and prepare exchanges at regular meetings (the lessons). The entry point for each meeting is neither a concept (e.g. double materiality) nor a tool (e.g. a standard), but a
reality (e.g. a business sector) affected by one of the issues the tutor has identified at the beginning of the programme. It is only after this point that students, having grasped the issues within a sector, can develop expectations that will enable them to read a company's sustainability report critically. This approach should help students to exercise critical thinking (forming expectations of what must be published, sparking curiosity about how the company presents information, identifying information missing from reports).

56

As far as taking action is concerned, the students are actors in the sense that they research data on a specific sector, analyse sustainability reports based on expert contributions and the results of their own research, compare reports from companies in the same sector and judge the quality of data analysed, and cross-check information sources. It is in this way that they develop their reflexive capabilities.

57

In the next section, we present two practical experiments inspired by these principles.

## 4.2. Two practical experiments, initial findings and discussion

58

This section presents two experiments we conducted with third year Bachelor's students and Masters students (Finance, Accounting, Auditing and Control, Management Control and Organisational Audit) at four different European universities. The first experiment is an innovative pedagogical approach (COIL - Collaborative Online International Learning) focusing on the CSRD and the EU taxonomy. The second is about double materiality analysis. We describe how each experiment progressed and present feedback. We then propose a general discussion based on findings common to both approaches.

### 4.2.1. Experiment 1: COIL "Green Deal, EU Taxonomy and sustainable business and value chains"

59

The experiment is set out in Box 1. After this we present the initial feedback.

#### COIL experiment

60

This teaching approach has already been implemented twice.

61

The context for creating the COIL is regulatory, namely the Green Deal that the EU adopted in 2019 with the objective of becoming the first carbon neutral continent. The COIL was created in response to this context and to the CSRD (replacement for the NFRD) which is implemented through the ESRS and the Green Taxonomy. This regulatory framework plays a noticeably prescriptive role in several areas. It aspires to give sustainability reporting the same level of importance as financial reporting in companies (1); the regulations on verification methods for sustainability provide for a move from limited assurance to reasonable assurance as of 2029 (2); under the transposition into French law, the perimeter of companies coming under the CSRD is to be extended (from December 2023) to include non-listed companies (3). The *Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes* (CNCC) is addressing the matter of training controllers authorised to audit these reports. The first "trainee" auditors (CAC) will have to undertake "sustainability visa" training (CACs wanting to acquire accreditation before 1 January 2026). After this date, and additionally, CACs must complete 90 hours of training with a colleague to be able to audit integrated reports. This development
shows that this is not a passing fad, but a new order with a common foundation of stringent (sustainability visa with its four pillars) and mandatory (CNCC) basic training. This shows that there is a need to include training in basic knowledge on rendering, analysing and verifying integrated reports in higher education programmes on accounting, auditing and management control. This is the purpose of the COIL. Its objective is to enable AAC students to master implementation arrangements for the CSRD and ESRS and to compare how they are transposed in their respective countries. It focuses on the following skills: (1) understanding the issues involved in this regulatory framework and its implementation arrangements; (2) grasping the underlying principles of the ESRS, data points and their publication, specifically including double materiality and value chain analysis, which are considered to be the cornerstones of any ESG performance management system. The goal is to help students to understand for themselves, through their own experience, how the regulations (taxonomy, CSRD, ESRS, etc) can drive transformations in business models and new strategies.

## Organisation of the COIL:

62 The COIL was delivered online between September and December through four collective sessions, or “meetings” of two hours each. 60 students from four universities and three countries took part (Spain, France, the Netherlands). Each university was represented by one tutor. Meetings took the form of country-based “face-to-face” sessions with the respective tutor and “remote” sessions with groups from the other countries and a guest lecturer. Each tutor chose a sector of activity. Students were allocated to one of the four sectors based on their choices and group size constraints. Each “sector” group was then divided into sub-groups with no more than five people per sub-group. The distribution of groups was determined by choice of sector and the University. Each tutor supervised the work for one sector of activity. The first half of each meeting began with a collective seminar and the second half took place online with sector groups and a tutor present in each class. The seminars were like lectures.

63 Meeting 1. Objective: to understand the regulatory framework in its broadest sense, having led to the Green Deal and its implementation within the CSRD and the ESRS standards. An expert presented the challenges and underlying principles. Environmental factors were examined by analysing an integrated report (Philips, first year). After the presentation, students were organised into international groups and there was an intercultural exercise to enable group members to get to know each other. After this meeting, students chose a sector of activity presenting major challenges in relation to the concepts set out (textiles, transport, agri-foods, etc). They then carried out research so that they could choose which companies’ integrated reports they would study, considering the significance of the ESG impacts these companies might have.

64 Meeting 2. Objective: to understand the challenges of transparency (integrated report content) with a seminar led by a guest lecturer either specialised in the audit of integrated accounts (version 1), who explained an extensive audit grid for integrated reports; or specialised in consultancy on the application of ESRS standards (version 2), who presented a roadmap for compiling an integrated report. The seminar was followed by a questionnaire and a discussion (at the discretion of the guest lecturer). Virtual classrooms were created per group (and therefore per sector). The second half of the session, dedicated to study per sector, focused on the exploitation of resources
and student/tutor discussions within each group. This part took place online. Each tutor, present in class with their students, could “spend” time with students in their groups to discuss the issues they raised and to encourage them to reflect on their expectations before reading the integrated reports. This enabled students to interact with experts during the seminars.

Meeting 3. Objective: to understand how to analyse the content and form of integrated reports, from a specific ESG angle, enabling students to gain a tangible grasp of the issues involved in communicating non-financial information. To achieve this, a guest lecturer led a seminar on a new environmental or societal factor, using a corporate management report setting out important impacts as a starting point.

Meeting 4. Objective: critical analysis of integrated reports. Based on research into the sector, which helped to define expectations regarding information about impacts, in the light of the findings of that research. Students could therefore be very interested in understanding how the company presented some impacts or why some information was omitted even though it had an important impact. In this way, students explored double materiality and risk analysis in the value chain using real-life cases. The following deliverables were expected for each group: an analysis report and an oral presentation given to all the groups. Each group was expected to give its opinion on other groups' reports and to ask questions. Students were given instructions about how to frame questions as problems that affected them as stakeholders. Common points that all groups were expected to address were communicated in advance and focused on the following matters: how does the CSRD contribute to changes in corporate culture, strategies and approaches to risk management in companies? How does the directive contribute to net positive performance in accordance with the Green Deal? What potential differences are there between countries, regarding all the points raised?

A reading list was made available to students and updated throughout the experiment.

Box 1: COIL experiment

Our evaluation of both iterations of this COIL enables us to draw two key lessons about its effectiveness, in terms of structure and approach.

Structural diagnosis

The two iterations were not replicated identically and the third version to come will be modified further. Each iteration of the COIL (since 2022) has been evaluated when it has finished, to improve subsequent versions and therefore meet, or come closer to meeting, its objective. Our task is not to design lectures and tutorials, but to find approaches that help students (1) to look for problem-based questions, challenges and expectations and (2) to construct a critical analysis of the reports they examine. At the same time, we train students through lectures, seminars, and discussions with professionals.

Between the first and second year, the COIL programme's structure was modified. In the second version, the entry point was changed. Instead of going directly to reading an integrated report and using it to explore concepts, the starting point was sectors of activity affected by the issues concerned (textiles, agri-foods, transport, mineral extraction, etc). Students were expected to identify issues and then identify a company from the sector concerned and to analyse its report. This way of sequencing the stages encouraged students to reflect on and identify issues within a sector in advance, so that
they could refine the way they studied a company report for that sector. This meant
that they were in a position to identify missing information, i.e., issues which were not
covered or that were presented in a positive light from the company's perspective
(green washing, pink washing, etc).

Diagnosis of the appropriateness of the participative teaching approach

We reflected on the appropriateness of the teaching approach in terms of how effective it was in meeting the initial objective (to facilitate students in understanding for themselves, through their own experience, how the regulations can drive transformations in business models and new strategies). Effectiveness was based on the following factors:

The dynamic nature of information in flux, co-created throughout the meetings. This is reflected in the approach adopted, namely, a dynamic, processual approach through inquiry (Lorino, 2009), in the form of an incomplete trajectory, in contrast to the traditional view of accountancy taught which is static, compartmentalised and completely predictable. To this end, students in each sector choose the company reports they will analyse themselves and explain their choices. This alternative has replaced a previous one in which the tutor chose the reports for analysis and students were often "passively" influenced by the narrative style and highly positive content in these reports.

The reflexive nature of the expected work could have disconcerted the students as it put a continuously exploratory model in front of them. This moved them away from the traditional and completely predictable, top-down model, in which they receive information, apply it and repeat it in their evaluation. This encouragement to think ahead, research by themselves and develop information turned them into "actors" on the ground and, consequently, made them jointly responsible for creating knowledge (Thomson and Bebbington, 2004). By having to put themselves in the shoes of stakeholders, they needed to think, to find pertinent questions and pertinent answers (knowledge creation). "*The content is really interesting because it's about important issues for our societies. However, it was difficult to understand everything, not just because the course was in English but because we were given so much information, some of it was complex and challenging to get to grips with, and we didn't spend a lot or enough time on it*". This review from a student shows the benefit of a dialogical approach – particularly in providing a less static view of accounting – and of an exploratory model which requires constant questioning and reflexivity, in contrast to a situation where the only active participant in the interaction and sole holder of all knowledge is the teacher. The course title and the tutor-student relationship are the first steps towards this new vision.

The purpose of teaching double materiality and value chain analysis within an accounting programme is to make students aware that they have the capacity to intervene in and shape the world (Freire 2006, p.112). Based on the feedback from the second iteration, lecturers have decided to strengthen this aspect for the following year. They will ask students to play the role stakeholders who then question other students, to think about new ways of making an impact on the world which are not found in any textbooks. The idea is for a dialogue to take place between stakeholders and representatives from all the sectors of activity. For example, let us suppose that a group of students plays the role of engaged consumers, that they have studied the agri-food sector and that they have identified deforestation as an issue in this sector. They can also turn to the student group representing the textile sector and ask how this
issue is addressed in the textile industry. Traditional top-down methods of the banking
type (Thomson and Bebbington, 2005) do not allow for this type of interaction. As one
student fed back: "The way of interacting was different to traditional lectures (sessions via
Teams video calls and input from specialists). The work proposed was also different to what we
are used to doing (working in large groups on real-life cases rather than examples from a
textbook). I found the learning approach in the COIL "refreshing". As well as acquiring skills and
knowledge in the subject, which were useful for the next semester, the opportunity to interact
with European students was a course highlight. The COIL enabled me to explore how important
topics are implemented practically in Europe - something that I didn't necessarily have much
knowledge about before". This feedback shows the benefits of the dialogical approach in
relation to the desired learning goals.

4.2.2. Experiment 2: Double Materiality Analysis

77 The experiment is set out in Box 2. After this, we present the initial feedback.

Double Materiality Analysis

78 This experiment was carried out within different classes: a management control for sustainable development class, delivered to a group of 25 work-based Master 2 students (Management Control and Organisational Audit), and an environmental accounting class, delivered to a group of 25 Master 2 students (AAC) with previous experience in an auditing firm, and 20 students studying a Masters in the Economics of the Environment. Overall, 70 students took part across the two classes.

79 There were two stages to this experiment. The first stage was tested just once, and the second stage was tested twice. The first stage was introduced in response to feedback from the first year of the experiment.

80 The first stage involved individual work, started in class, completed at home and then uploaded for marking. The tutor's initial contribution was to outline the history of the standardisation of non-financial information in Europe, to present the CSRD, the EU Taxonomy and the SFDR in the context of the European Green Deal, and to present and explain the concept of double materiality to students. The tutor then suggested exploring a sector of activity, to think about how to apply the concept. Using a review of press articles prepared by the tutor (in this case, the semiconductor industry)⁵ students were then asked to identify material subjects, from a double materiality perspective, and the internal and external stakeholders affected. They were also given an analysis grid. See Appendix 1 for an example of a student's response using this grid. Students began their individual work in class and then finished it the next day and uploaded it for marking.

81 Each student received individual feedback from the tutor who then gave an overall summary at the next class drawing on the best work submitted and their own additional thoughts. Students were then asked for their ideas on how to audit a strategy for double materiality analysis, which they went on to trial in class.

82 For the second stage, students worked on a group project, outside of classes, which was then uploaded for grading. The only information given in class was the instructions. The tutor uploaded a list of non-financial performance declarations (DPEF) from French companies to an online learning space. He asked students to form groups that reflected
the diversity of the class and intervened, if necessary, to rebalance the composition of
these groups. He then asked students to:

83

- download the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which describe double materiality analysis, and one of the five environmental ESRS of their choosing (climate change, water, biodiversity, pollution, circular economy).

84

- to go through the wording of the standard point by point.

85

- to identify what is taken into account in the DPEF, and how and to what extent it tallies with the wording in the standard; and then to carry out a gap analysis.

86

To do this, the tutor provided a grid comprising a presentation of the working method, a compliance analysis (in tabular form) and a reasoned appraisal (opinion on compliance and opinion on its progression if this is possible).

Box 2: Double Materiality Analysis

87

Structural diagnosis

88

The first time this approach was trialled, students were asked to analyse the gaps between the CSRD and the DPEF only. The outcome of this was that student responses were less than reflective, for several reasons. First, the input from the tutor was relatively disconnected from the work required of students. An explanation of the CSRD and its key points is not necessarily something that can be used to analyse a report and compare it against the standard, and as the group work took place outside of class time, tutors did not have opportunities to interact with students. The second factor was the difficulty students had in judging the quality of how a double materiality analysis was implemented, due to not having adequate understanding of the approach. Adding a preliminary stage in which students are actors creating knowledge, made the analysis stage more productive. For the second year, discussion time was also planned with students at the end of the first stage to pool all the learning acquired to answer a question.

89

Diagnosis of the appropriateness of the participative teaching approach

90

The introduction of the first sequence enabled students to try out a double materiality analysis technique, on a micro scale, to understand the associated issues, to debate how to prioritise and interpret information (some topics are more material than others), and to problematise it. Discussion between students and with the tutor also led to the proposal that if a topic was discussed in all the press articles, it was likely to be more "material" than a topic only covered once in a single article. These discussions went on to help students identify the limits of such a suggestion, as perhaps the press review was not exhaustive and it was necessary to explore other sources. Before even beginning the task of carrying out analysis, students were therefore able to problematise, solve and contextualise the analysis approach.

91

Next, the work submitted encouraged discussion on the audit of double materiality analysis. By carrying out an analysis themselves, students could understand that it was necessary to exercise judgement, and therefore to use contextual knowledge, rather than just apply a process mechanically. This helped them to understand that auditors of non-financial reports had to go further than checking for the existence of double materiality analysis. It was desirable to exercise a form of judgement on the substance of the analysis carried out by the company. There should be more to an audit than
simply issuing official confirmation that the appropriate diligence has been carried out. Ideally, the audit should also judge the thoroughness of the analysis on its merits – have relevant stakeholders been omitted? do the people interviewed know the company well? have documentary resources been left out? have some of the risks and opportunities been forgotten? Students concluded from this that there was a significant difference from financial auditing, but that there was also a major difficulty as auditors need to be trained or work with other experts. This also provided an opportunity to explain the difference between limited assurance and reasonable assurance and to help students understand why in France, until 2028, auditors will only give limited assurance.

For the second stage, student teams therefore began their group work with a sector analysis so that they could form their own ideas about the points the company presented in the DPEF, which their group was going to analyse. This produced more thorough and better-informed analyses on the gaps with the CSRD than in the previous year.

92

## 4.3. Discussion

While we have devised and improved our approaches from one year to the next, without having read the literature presented in this article previously, we note that our inclination towards interaction aligned closely with the characteristics of those active and participative approaches known as dialogical. Studying the relevant literature has enabled us to develop an analysis grid to "audit" our own approaches and to establish our position. It emerges that both our experiments include the attributes of a dialogical approach.

93

### *The dynamic nature of the knowledge acquired*

Knowledge is not static and loaded onto students. It is neither timeless nor compartmentalised and predictable (application of a method leads, mechanically, to a predictable result). In contrast, it is dynamic, co-produced by the tutor and students, transient, interconnected and unpredictable (application of a method involves collecting information following a known protocol, but without the possibility of predicting the knowledge that will emerge from this protocol in advance).

94

### *Reflexivity as a condition of developing a more generalised perspective and producing knowledge*

Students can only progress from one stage to another if they have generated the knowledge needed to move to the next stage themselves. For example, to analyse a company's non-financial report, first, students must have “sharpened” their critical thinking by investigating the issues in that sector of activity. This involves presenting questions to students to help them problematise and then working with them to find solutions to a list of issues their tutor has specified. The tutor is not the only active participant here and students contribute to creating knowledge.

95
### The incomplete nature of the knowledge produced

Unlike the top-down approach which sets a starting point (how to analyse a return on investment) and a predetermined solution (calculate the net present value), dialogical approaches never place a finishing point on the discussion and exploration. At the end of the learning process, students may leave with many new problems and questions which have arisen from the knowledge acquired. This is not seen to be a problem, rather, it is the starting point for a new exploration following the process used during the course. The essential benefit of training therefore becomes the process used to raise and resolve problems, or to put it another way, the process of "learning to learn".

### The goal of transformation

The knowledge students acquire is not neutral, they feel invested in the ongoing search for problems and solutions, which changes the way they act and their view of the world. For example, to perform a double materiality analysis, students must be involved actively so that they problematise and therefore ask questions about matters that concern them (how to prioritise topics, from the most material to the least), so that they can then reflect on solutions (the more the topic appears in a significant number of documents, the more material it is likely to be), and so that they can contextualise (this solution is only valid if the documents are exhaustive). Reasoning in this way teaches students that by asking questions and reflecting on problems, they can find solutions and assess their impact and limitations. This is a transposable technique which helps students to understand that they can act similarly in other areas of their lives.

In future iterations we believe it would be important to explore how these approaches enable students to refine their critical thinking abilities regarding the forms of social and environmental accounting that are being put in place. How does social and environmental accounting (SEA) contribute to preserving an established order rather than challenging it? From a critical view, one could justifiably criticise SEA for politicising sustainable development by building consensus, whereas dissensus is thought to be necessary to bring invisible categories out (Brown and Tregidga, 2017). This is the case, for example with non-human animals who suffer from impacts overlooked by the accounting profession as a stakeholder (Vinnari and Vinnari, 2022). Another approach could be to study accounting practices in NGOs whose performance is based on their ability to nurture close relations with their stakeholders. If we use this analysis as a starting point for thinking about corporate accounting, we realise that a company's success (commercial, industrial and financial) relies on its precise ability to be unaccountable to civil society, and therefore to sidestep the social and environmental consequences of its activities (Gray and Bebbington, 2006).

## 5. Conclusion

In conclusion, developments in practices and the regulations on non-financial information present important teaching challenges for future AAC experts. Educators are faced with a standards regime set by external stakeholders and do not know how to teach it. This represents a significant shift when it comes to the innovation of
corporate overall performance management tools, which corresponds to a global emergency.

100 Historically, universities have been late to adopt innovations created in the corporate world. We can cite the case of innovations such as ROI (return on investment) and budget experimentation, respectively, at Dupont de Nemours and General Motors. The education sector has simply followed and disseminated these new methods.

101 Today, with dialogical methods, there is the possibility for the opposite to happen. The academic community could be at the forefront of training future professionals capable of co-producing knowledge with stakeholders - if they have experienced active and participative learning during their training.

102 To make a more effective contribution, spaces such as the cluster groups in the Association Francophone de Comptabilité, and the GRAPFIG (Groupe de Recherche et d'Applications Pédagogiques en Finance et Gestion) can enable educators to compare and share their training experiences. A next stage could be to create a community or network of AAC lecturer-researchers interested in the issues involved in accounting for sustainable development training, with a view to suggesting teaching approaches.

## Appendix 1: Example of a double materiality analysis based on a press review

<table><thead><tr><th>Semiconductors (chips and boards)</th><th>Water conservation</th><th>Water pollution</th><th>GHG emissions</th><th>Other atmospheric pollution</th><th>Land-use change</th><th>Waste</th><th>Fundamental human rights</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Extraction</td><td></td><td>*** Ecoinfo CNRS:<br/> Sand extraction leads to a series of negative environmental impacts which have been described and evaluated using standardised methods (Leopold et al., 1971; Gonzalez Alonzo et al., 1991];<br/> * The impacts on water quality were deemed severe (increased runoff, erosion and turbidity downstream).</td><td></td><td></td><td>*** Ecoinfo CNRS:<br/> Sand extraction leads to a series of negative environmental impacts which were described and evaluated using standardised methods (Leopold et al., 1971; Gonzalez Alonzo et al., 1991];<br/> * The impacts on the land were deemed critical.<br/> * The impacts on soil and vegetation were also deemed severe (erosion, damage to wooded areas and pastures).</td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>Transformation</td><td></td><td>*** Ecoinfo CNRS:<br/> Over 100,000 tonnes of chlorine and 200,000 tonnes of various acids and solvents had to be used, for which no treatment was available at the time. The pollution recorded since in "Silicon Valley" confirms that toxic effluents have been discharged into the environment, polluting groundwaters. Industrial silicon processing is therefore extremely wasteful of raw materials, and a major consumer of toxic products, water and energy.</td><td>*** Ecoinfo CNRS:<br/> It is clear to see that the greatest material flow by far is coal. The environmental impact of this fossil fuel will vary significantly depending on the country where it is extracted (emerging country/developed country).<br/> The various stages in transforming the natural resource (silica) into wafers have a high energy consumption. In total, 2933 kWh of electricity are required to produce 1kg of silicon wafer.<br/> The semiconductor industry is becoming more and more energy intensive. Improvements in manufacturing techniques are reducing the necessary material flows, but this step forward is diminished by soaring demand - what is known as the "rebound effect". The production of electronic grade silicon consumes 160 times more energy than production for metallurgical grade silicon because of the extreme purification required for electronics.</td><td></td><td></td><td>*** Ecoinfo CNRS:<br/> In 1990, global production of metallurgical grade silicon reached 800,000 tonnes. Just 32,000 tonnes were produced to electronic grade.<br/> After the final purification stages and significant manufacturing waste, just 3200 tonnes ended up in photovoltaic cells and 750 tonnes in electronic components.</td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>
<table><thead><tr><th>Semiconductors (chips and boards)</th><th>Water conservation</th><th>Water pollution</th><th>GHG emissions</th><th>Other atmospheric pollution</th><th>Land-use change</th><th>Waste</th><th>Fundamental human rights</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>Manufacturing</td><td><strong>*** Rebeca:</strong><br>Enormous quantities of water (e.g. TSMC: 210 million litres i.e. consumption of approximately €1.5 million in Europe. Ultrapure water required for chemical etching and cleaning.<br>A growing phenomenon as chips become more sophisticated.<br>Manufacturers are often in arid areas as low humidity is advantageous (Taiwan, Israel, arid zones in the USA, northern China, Singapore)<br><br><strong>*** Le Monde:</strong><br>Key technical hubs threatened by water shortages from now on. The city of Monterey (northern Mexico).<br>This situation is not without similarities to the chronic water shortage affecting Burgalau, India's Silicon Valley.<br>1m³ pure water requires 1.4-1.4m³ water<br>Water also used for cooling.<br><br><strong>*** Businessam:</strong><br>The higher quality the chip, the greater the water and energy consumption during manufacture.<br>The semiconductor production line also requires significant volumes of highly purified water.</td><td><strong>*** Ecoinfo CNRS:</strong><br>All chemical products used to produce wafers end up in the wastewater. They include arsenic, antimony, phosphorus, hydrogen peroxide, nitric, sulfuric and hydrofluoric acids, polishing slurry and even metal residues (e.g. copper) [7]. Due to the pressures resulting from environmental laws, wastewater must be treated and recycled, which is starting to happen. Toxic substances must be filtered, and acids neutralised.</td><td><strong>*** Businessam:</strong><br>High energy consumption and fluorinated GHG. Sector representative, the Electronic Component Manufacturer Association, asserts that in Europe, industrial emissions have reduced by 42% over 10 years due to better use of perfluorinated compounds which have also become less polluting.<br>The higher quality the chip, the greater the water and energy consumption during manufacturing. TSMC in Taiwan consumed 5% of the island's electricity in 2020, according to figures from Greenpeace. The company also emitted 15 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents, double its emissions in 2019, or almost Samsung, holding second position in the market, emitted 13 million tonnes.<br><br><strong>*** Ecoinfo CNRS:</strong><br>Energy required in the production of elementary gases.<br>Although the use of elementary gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon does not, strictly speaking, have a direct impact, beyond the precautions required during handling, the fact remains that their production and purification uses a high amount of energy.</td><td><strong>*** Ecoinfo CNRS:</strong><br>The semiconductor industry is a vast consumer of chemical products, several which are used in high volumes and several which are toxic. The effluent from these products has potential impacts on air, water, and soil quality, as well as on the health of employees who are at risk of developing occupational diseases.</td><td></td><td><strong>*** Businessam:</strong><br>Companies like TSMC and Intel which create more harmful waste than other industries, usually considered to be polluting, such as the automobile industry.</td><td><strong>*** Le Monde:</strong><br>Risk of conflicts of use, between populations, and between crops and livestock, hydroelectric and nuclear power plants, and industrial and technological companies' production lines.<br><br><strong>*** Ecoinfo CNRS:</strong><br>The semiconductor industry is a vast consumer of chemical products, several which are used in high volumes and several which are toxic. The effluent from these products have potential impacts on air, water and soil quality and the health of employees who are at risk of developing occupational diseases.<br><br><strong>*** Businessam:</strong><br>Employment versus living environment issues.<br>As well as the precautions required in terms of public spending efficiency, the intention behind sitting manufacturing facilities within the EU is to guarantee security of supply, with potential trade-offs for public spending efficiency and environmental sustainability.<br>"Setting up industrial facilities can have a negative impact on the environment, but this can be offset by their contribution to the transition towards sustainability over the long term".</td></tr><tr><td>Use:</td><td><strong>Le Monde:</strong><br>Products containing semiconductors, global suppliers of data centers.</td><td></td><td><strong>Businessam:</strong><br>Energy consumption of final products.<br>Opportunity: in the EU, to produce more efficient chips that consume less energy and therefore emit less CO2 (when using the device containing the chip).</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr><tr><td>End-of-life Society</td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td><td></td></tr></tbody></table>

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# APPENDIXES

## 0. Introduction

Analysis based on articles from 4 sources:
Robeco

Le Monde

Businessam

Ecoinfo - CNRS

## 1. Impact materiality

The breakdown of the impacts mentioned in the 4 articles is in the tab "impact materiality table".

On reading these articles, the issues emerging which seem to me to have the greatest materiality are (in descending order):

- At a manufacturing level, water consumption is a significant issue from the perspective of the impact of water extraction in manufacturing zones

- At a transformation level, water pollution linked to the use of a high number of chemical products (if regulation is ineffective or not followed)

- At a transformation level, GHG emissions are high due to the extensive use of coal

- At an extraction level, land use and degradation (chemical products, erosion, etc)

Some issues are not mentioned explicitly and would probably need to be investigated through other sources, for example:

- Extraction: human rights issues in relation to this activity

- Extraction: Transformation - Manufacturing: biodiversity challenges

- End-of-life: the processing and reclamation of waste (circular economy) from products containing semiconductors

## 2. Financial materiality

Risks linked to the shortage of water needed for manufacturing which could entail significant costs (OpEx and CapEx) and even cause revenue to fall, if operations must be stopped in some zones.

### Robeco Article:

- For example in Taiwan, the largest producer, context of frequent drought, government request that companies in the sector reduce water consumption by 15%, with possible sanctions --> OpEx impact (increased operational cost and sanction).

- Also in Taiwan, company obliged to bring water in by lorry --> OpEx impact
- Globally, companies required to invest in treating wastewater and recycling treated wastewater + need to conduct numerous water quality analyses --> CapEx impact

**Le Monde article:**

- Key technical hubs threatened by water shortages from now on. The city of Monterrey (Mexico)

- This situation is not without similarities to the chronic water shortage affecting Bengaluru, India's Silicon Valley.

- They must now use an alternative water supply produced by recycling their wastewater, exploiting the potential of greywater for their industrial process or, if their facilities are not far from the coast, they can make use of desalination.

- Without conflicts of use between populations, and between crops and livestock, hydroelectric and nuclear power plants, and industrial and technological companies' production lines.

**Risks linked to the pressures of environmental laws, with possible impacts on OpEx and CapEx, particularly regarding wastewater treatment:**

**Businessam article:**

As well as the negative impact on climate, the impact on finances will also be felt due to environmental standards (the budget for the EU and its member countries, just to develop the sector, is 43 billion euros).

**Ecofin CNRS article:**

Due to the pressures resulting from environmental laws, wastewater must be treated and recycled, which is starting to happen. Toxic substances must be filtered, and acids neutralised.

## NOTES

1. CSRD: Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (EU), effective from 1 January 2024.

2. On these developments, particularly in the digital field, see also accounts from professionals: https://www.actu-juridique.fr/professions/expertise-comptable-levolution-lente-mais-indenable-dun-metier/
(Viewed on 27 June 2024)

https://www.actu-juridique.fr/professions/autres-professions/le-numerique-est-en-train-de-revolutionner-notre-metier/
(Viewed on 27 June 2024)

3. EFRAG European Financial Reporting Advisory Group = the European body working on an accounting standards project for sustainability, in accordance with the CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive)

4. Stakeholder categories include employees, suppliers, partners, clients, consumers, shareholders, local authorities, vulnerable persons, investors, financers, NGOs, analysts, researchers, governments, auditors and central banks.

5. The following articles were used for the press review:

https://www.robeco.com/be/fr/actualites/2021/10/ces-puces-qui-epuisent-les-ressources-en-eau-de-la-planete.html#

https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2022/08/13/des-centres-technologiques-nevralgiques-sont-dorenavant-menaces-par-le-manque-d-eau_6137917_3232.html

https://fr.businessam.be/lindustrie-de-semi-conducteurs-est-lune-des-plus-gourmandes-en-ressources-au-monde-comment-le-chips-act-se-heurte-aux-ambitions-climatiques-de-leurope/
https://ecoinfo.cnrs.fr/2010/10/20/le-silicium-les-impacts-environnementaux-lies-a-la-production/

https://ecoinfo.cnrs.fr/2010/10/20/le-silicium-les-aspects-sociaux/

## ABSTRACTS

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) responsibility has, undeniably, become a major issue in the field of Accounting, Control and Audit. It has led to a review of the principles governing the construction and publication of financial and non-financial information. This article reviews and explains how active and participative teaching methods are appropriate for teaching principles that are still in flux and that challenge traditional accounting, control and auditing principles. It then identifies three major topics in non-financial reporting and explains how they could be taught using these methods. Two examples tested by the authors are presented and discussed. It appears that student participation is part of a knowledge appropriation and production process that does not depend solely on the teacher's input.

La responsabilité environnementale, sociétale et de gouvernance (ESG) est incontestablement devenue un enjeu majeur pour le champ de la comptabilité du contrôle et de l'audit. Elle amène à revisiter les principes de construction et de publication de l'information financière et extra-financière. Cet article passe en revue et explique en quoi les méthodes pédagogiques actives et participatives sont adéquates pour enseigner des principes encore mouvants qui bousculent des principes classiques de comptabilité, de contrôle et d'audit. Il identifie ensuite trois sujets majeurs sur l'information extra-financière et expose comment ils pourraient être enseignés à l'aide de ces méthodes. Deux exemples testés par les auteurs sont présentés et discutés. La participation des étudiants semble effectivement participer à une dynamique d'appropriation et de production de savoir qui ne dépend pas que des apports de l'enseignant.

## INDEX

**Mots-clés:** Apprentissage, comptabilité, information extra-financière, CSRD, rapport de développement durable

**Keywords:** Learning, accounting, non-financial information, CSRD, sustainable development reporting

## AUTHORS

### RIMA EL SAYED

Université Catholique de l'Ouest, Nantes

### NICOLAS ANTHEAUME

LEMNA, Nantes Université, Nantes