In March 2023, the SEC proposed its long-awaited climate change disclosure rules. As businesses adjust to meet stakeholder demands and deliver new, high-quality reporting, they need someone with the right experience to lead the way.  There has been a rise in ESG Controller jobs. The person responsible for assuring that any ESG-related disclosures a company makes are complete and accurate, just like a “traditional” corporate controller is responsible for assuring the accuracy of financial disclosures. As ever more jurisdictions move toward mandatory disclosure of ESG metrics, (ex: the European Union’s new Corporate Sustainability Reporting directive and impending U.S. SEC requirements) the urgency to get those disclosures right has gone up.

This course to as an introduction to the concept of requirements for Controllers and financial personnel to understand ESG disclosures.Whether the role related to ESG disclosures and information falls into the job responsibility of the controller or not is yet to be seen. However, the Controller must maintain some level of knowledge and expertise around the types and timing of such disclosures.

Field of Study: Accounting