Integrating Sustainability into the Accounting Curriculum

Meeting an Emerging Student Demand

Sonja Pippin, PhD, CPA, and Matthew Stallings, PhD, and Jessica Weber, PhD, and Jeff Wong, PhD, CPA

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Milton Friedman's seminal article, “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” The essay focused primarily on shareholders and the priority of profits as an appeal to free market capitalism. This idea was generated during the height of the Cold War and the ideological struggle between capitalism and communism. In recent times, it has become increasingly clear that profit maximization alone does not necessarily equate to societal welfare maximization.