Dumb Question: If Sustainability's So Great, Why Don’t Financial Types Mention It?

By Eric Roston

This week’s Dumb Question went to Christoph Huetten, senior vice president and chief accounting officer for SAP, which is based in Walldorf, Germany. Huetten last week helped the software maker roll out its first annual report that integrates financial results into one document (or "integrated report") with non-financial performance metrics, such as carbon pollution, women in management or employee retention.

DQ: Can I ask you a dumb question? If sustainability is so important to business, and not just p.r., then why is it so rare for financial executives to tout sustainability goals and sustainability executives to tout financial goals? 

Christoph Huetten: I don't think that every communication with Wall Street is always about the entire enchilada of financial and non-financial [performance]. There will be times when people are more focused on the financial side, and times when people are more focused on the non-financial side. 

Even in five or 10 years, most of what people will talk about in an earnings call with Wall Street will be revenue and profit. If it is about a full-year performance, that's where you will see more and more on non-financial factors. It's not that we will see equality: ‘Here's my earnings... Revenue grew by this much, and carbon footprint was reduced by this much.’

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*This article originally appeared on Bloomberg.com