The inaugural meeting of the American Chapter of the Academy of Sustainable Finance, Accounting, Accountability and Governance (ASFAAG) focused on the triple bottom-line, ‘people, profits and the planet,’ and how the three are leading the discussions for academics, policymakers and practitioners.
The conference aims to increase awareness to these issues and explore how businesses can strike a balance between profits and purpose. Held at FIU Business over three days, it brought together academics and financial experts showcasing their latest research on climate finance, ESG disclosure, sustainability regulations and more.
“There are people coming from different parts of the world, people from UK, people from Denmark, there are folks from China, Australia, and from different parts of the country,” said Arun Upadhyay, finance professor at FIU Business and conference chair. “The idea is to provide a platform where we could exchange our ideas about how to make businesses more sustainable, where the focus is on long term sustainability.”
FIU Business Department of Finance faculty members Robinson Reyes-Pena, Suchismita Mishra, Krishnan Dandapani and accounting professor Kannan Raghunandan together presented their paper on short selling and audit reporting. Upadhyay, with finance professors Dallin Alldredge and Mustafa Caglayan, presented their research on exploiting accruals anomaly.
Deans from various colleges, including FIU Business’s William Hardin; Anthony Page, of FIU Law; Ann M. Olazabal, of Miami Herbert Business School, and Rashmi Prasad, of the School of Business at Truman State University, participated on a panel to discuss the role academic institutions play in the area of sustainability and how they get their students involved.
At the University of Miami, Olazabal highlighted their buildings’ Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification and ways their operations mitigate excess waste.
“We have attempted to be more conscious of the use of paper cups and [have] water towers at our events rather than passing out water which is just so much easier and more cost effective,” said Olazabal. “I think participants prefer it in some ways and have their own bottle to refill.”
Upadhyay noted that FIU has been working toward becoming a center of excellence in the area of sustainability and that the ASFAAG conference is part of a broader initiative.
“I hope to learn what other academics are doing in this area,” said John Raffensperger, operations management professor at the University of Rochester. “I teach in MBA programs, and these are going to be the future businesspeople, business leaders. If we can teach them that they should operate businesses sustainably we’ll have a better future.”