Published Paper Details:

Sustainability accounting has gained attention in recent years. The trend has become rampant in Zambia after singing the UN agreement agenda 2030. Despite being part of the agreement, SA adoption rate in Zambia has been low primarily due to the voluntary nature and the discretion exercised by management on year-end reports. The requirement by SEC to disclose the ESG activities has not been enough to mirror the adoption rate in the country as there are a number of large organizations not listed whose activities affect the society and environment. This led to conducting the study with a specific focus on IDC. The research objectives were to evaluate the current adoption levels of SA practices by companies under IDC, to identify factors affecting the application of SA by companies under IDC and to determine the strategies that IDC can adopt in order to enhance the SA practices. The overall results revealed a low level of disclosure a situation that has been gradually improving from a sustainability reporting index of 0.39 in 2017 to 0.49 in 2022. The low levels of disclosure were attributed to several factors such as lack of knowledge, additional costs, time constraints and lack of government initiatives. Statistical analysis revealed a significant correlation between the current level of adoption and the need to a mandatory adoption of sustainability accounting practice. The negative correlations indicated that higher levels of sustainability accounting practices corresponded with greater value creation for stakeholders.