Corporate Sustainability Accounting: A catchphrase for compliant corporations or a business decision support for sustainability leaders?

In the recent past "sustainability accounting" and related terms (such as "sustainability management accounting" and "sustainability financial accounting") are being used with greater frequently at academic conferences and in corporate practice. This raises the question of the relationship between accounting and sustainability and the role of accounting for sustainability, as well as what could be understood by sustainability accounting. This contribution reviews the literature on the corporation and sustainability accounting and distinguishes between different views when dealing with this topic. In addition, different approaches towards the further development of sustainability accounting are discussed.