2017 Sustainability Essay winner
ICAS and SSE are delighted to announce that the winner of the 2017 Sustainability Essay Competition is Helen Marshall CA, CFO of Falcon Coffees.
Themed around sustainability in the coffee industry, the messages from Helen’s essay are equally relevant to other sectors.
The judging panel had the unenviable task of trying to select a winner from the various entries.
‘It’s a tough decision to identify one essay that stands out over all of the others when there are several close contenders’ said Anne Adrain, Head of Sustainability and Assurance, ICAS. ‘However, the Sustainability Panel selected this as the winner as it uses the example of a product that we are all familiar with to demonstrate how the role of an accountant goes beyond the numbers and financials and introduces the importance of the supply chain and the need for traceability’.
Reflecting on the winning essay, the Chair of the ICAS Sustainability Panel, George Cobb, commented ‘The Panel particularly appreciated that the winning essay highlighted how the different skills and disciplines in the accounting profession could be applied to tackle the issue of sustainable development. Reference to how technological developments such as blockchain might assist in verifying the authenticity of the supply chain was also welcomed by the Panel.’
Bruce Cartwright, ICAS Chief Executive, praised the winning essay and all the entrants.
ICAS is proud to support this initiative, along with SSE, as a way of encouraging the accounting profession to demonstrate how we can play our part in achieving a sustainable society.
- Bruce Cartwright, Chief Executive, ICAS
The £1,000 cash prize will be presented to Helen during the President’s Reception in London on 10 May 2018.
The winning essay will be published in full in due course. ICAS also plans to publish key messages from some of the other essays over the coming months.