Accounting for values
World Goetheanum Forum Christian Hiss presented a concept that accounts for the positive sides of sustainable business approaches.
On conventional financial balance sheets, social and ecological achievements merely appear as expenses, a fact that puts sustainably run enterprises at a disadvantage compared to conventional businesses. This can result in genuine disadvantages, for instance when a business is denied a loan on the basis of its expenses, while the ecological ‘profit’ is not taken into account.
Insurers and pension funds, too, have realized by now that the corresponding ‘risks’ of their activities are not reflected in their balance sheets. “As a result, the banks and the EU are working on developing new accounting guidelines,” says Andrea Valdinoci, general manager of the World Goetheanum Association.
Christian Hiss is pioneering a financial system that accounts for sustainability. He has designed new accounting records for farmers that also reflect the value created within an enterprise. This system registers, for instance, the improvement of soil fertility as a positive development even though it carries higher overheads.
In founding the joint-stock company Regionalwert [regional value], Christian Hiss also created a tool that provides concrete support for ecological farming and food enterprises. The scheme works with shares that co-fund produce which has been grown, processed and marketed according to organic standards.
For this concept, Christian Hiss and Regionalwert received the 2020 Courage for Sustainability Award issued by the German science magazine Zeit-Wissen.