Accountability is a concept in corporate governance that is the acknowledgement of responsibility by an organization for actions, decisions, products, and policies that it undertakes.

Sustainability accounting (also known as social accounting, social and environmental accounting, corporate social reporting, corporate social responsibility reporting, or non-financial reporting) was originated about 20 years ago and is considered a subcategory of financial accounting that focuses on the disclosure of non-financial information about a firm's performance to external stakeholders, such as capital holders, creditors, and other authorities. Sustainability accounting represents the activities that have a direct impact on society, environment, and economic performance of an organisation. Sustainability accounting in managerial accounting contrasts with financial accounting in that managerial accounting is used for internal decision making and the creation of new policies that will have an effect on the organisation's performance at economic, ecological, and social (known as the triple bottom line or Triple-P's; People, Planet, Profit) level. Sustainability accounting is often used to generate value creation within an organisation.

Sustainability accounting connects the companies' strategies from a sustainable framework by disclosing information on the three dimensional levels (environment, economical and social). In practice, however, it is difficult to put together policies that simultaneously promote environmental, economic and social goals.

This trend has encouraged companies to not only emphasize creation of value but also risk mitigation that are linked to the environmental and social subset of sustainable development. This development has been driven by multiple factors connected to:

1. Sustainability issues that materially affect a company's creation of value, risk and liabilities
2. The need for business to appropriately respond to sustainable growth.