Social Accounting - History

History

Modern forms of social accounting first produced widespread interest in the 1970s. Its concepts received serious consideration from professional and academic accounting bodies, e.g. the Accounting Standards Board's predecessor, the American Accounting Association and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Business-representative bodies, e.g. the Confederation of British Industry, likewise approached the issue.

In 1981 Freer Spreckley produced a short book entitled 'Social Audit - A Management Tool for Co-operative Working' designed as an internal organisational social accounting and audit model specifically for social enterprises who wished to measure their social, environmental and financial performance. This was the basis for the Co-operative Bank and Shell Corporation's social performance reports in the UK and subsequently many other private sector companies social responsibility reporting.

Abt Associates, the American consultancy firm, is one of the most cited early examples of businesses that experimented with social accounting. In the 1970s Abt Associates conducted a series of social audits incorporated into its annual reports. The social concerns addressed included "productivity, contribution to knowledge, employment security, fairness of employment opportunities, health, education and self-development, physical security, transportation, recreation, and environment". The social audits expressed Abt Associates performance in this areas in financial terms and thus aspired to determine the company's net social impact in balance sheet form. Other examples of early applications include Laventhol and Horwath, then a reputable accounting firm, and the First National Bank of Minneapolis (now U.S. Bancorp).

Yet social accounting practices were only rarely codified in legislation; notable exceptions include the French bilan social and the British 2006 Companies Act. Interest in social accounting cooled off in the 1980s and was only resurrected in the mid-1990s, partly nurtured by growing ecological and environmental awareness.