Contact: Roger Adams, Head of Technical Services
Address: 29 Lincoln's Inn Fields, London WC2A 3EE
Website: http://www.accaglobal.com

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) is the largest global professional accountancy body, with 250,000 members and students in 160 countries. ACCA's headquarters are in London and it has staffed offices in 25 countries.

In the UK, ACCA is by far the largest accountancy body in terms of student numbers, and the second largest in terms of members. It is, however, the only body to operate on a global basis. The ACCA syllabus has been recognised by the United Nations as providing the basis for a global accountancy qualification. ACCA members enjoy wide professional mobility .

ACCA offers three qualifications - a professional qualification entitling members to the designation Chartered Certified Accountant; a technician level qualification; and a diploma for managers who are non accountants but who need to acquire operational and strategic finance skills. ACCA combines the benefits of traditional accounting skills with a wide ranging and forward looking syllabus, which recognises that finance professionals are increasingly required to demonstrate strategic thinking, excellent communication, people skills and fluency with information technology. This was recently confirmed by a poll of international business leaders commissioned by ACCA from the independent research firm MORI.

Founded in 1904 in London, ACCA's mission is to provide quality professional opportunities to people of ability and application, to be a leader in the development of the global accountancy profession, to promote the highest ethical and governance standards and to work in the public interest.

ACCA is governed by a Council all of whom are themselves ACCA members from around the world and who are elected by the whole membership. There are no constituencies; Council members thus represent all ACCA members. An International Assembly , elected on the basis of national and regional constituencies, advises Council and acts as a channel of communication between council and ACCA's global membership.

ACCA has been active in the area of environmental, social and sustainability reporting and verification since 1989. We are a founder member of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and an active contributor to the Sustainability Working Party of the European Federation of Accountants (FEE). We are also represented on the Council of the Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility (ISEA).

The SIGMA project represents a logical coming - together of many of the issues ACCA has been championing for the last decade. There is a clear need for formal guidance on how to integrate sustainability issues into existing management systems - the better the internal integration, the better the end results, in terms of coherent management strategies and high quality sustainability reporting.

Steering Group ... ACCA Business in the Environment CBI Centre for Sustainable Design The Citizen Brand Company DfID DETR DTI The Environment Agency Federation of Small Businesses Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment The Institution of Environmental Sciences KPMG Lantra The Natural Step New Economics Foundation SustainAbility Ltd Trades Union Congress Traidcraft Exchange

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