After several years of advocating the value of ESG consulting services and the opportunity for the accounting profession, Sensiba LLP’s Director of Sustainability Jennifer Harrity has been named to Accounting Today magazine’s prestigious Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting roster.

The Top 100 list celebrates the accomplishments of the accounting industry’s most valuable thought leaders, regulators, and other stakeholders shaping the industry and its future direction. 

The honor comes during a growing acceptance of ESG considerations in risk management, compliance, and reporting among the broader business community, and the resulting opportunities for the accounting profession.

“Earlier this year, I was at the AICPA’s ESG Symposium in New York with about 70 leaders from the accounting world. It was the first time where I was having a serious discussion about ESG where nobody rolled their eyes,” she recalls. “I said to myself, ‘Now they get it.'”

With growing recognition that sustainability goals need to be integrated into corporate strategy and the enactment of new disclosure requirements for companies, the accounting profession’s experience in helping clients address their risk management and reporting needs is creating opportunities for firms.

“Everyone’s been saying the industry has been shifting from a compliance model to a consulting model,” Harrity says. “ESG is largely a consulting opportunity. There is some compliance to it, because clients are going to have to do the reporting, but accountants need to know how to consult on these issues.”

Sensiba began investing in providing ESG services and promoting the value of sustainability to our clients, accounting firms, and the business community in 2018. John Sensiba and the partner group recognized the opportunity and tasked Harrity with developing a sustainability practice.

““When our practice launched, the demand and need were uncertain,” Harrity says. “At first, people called me the California hippie chick when I brought up sustainability. We were pioneers in the space, and we’ve been building our practice by seeing what sticks and what doesn’t in the market, knowing that our clients are going to need this. I’m very blessed that John and the partners saw the value here and had the vision to let me do this.”

Sensiba LLP joins a new partnership network aimed at helping companies measure and eliminate their carbon emissions.

Sensiba LLP, an accounting and business-consulting firm, is pleased to announce a partnership with Climate Neutral (a.k.a. the Change Climate Project as of 2023), a mission-driven nonprofit organization working with brands and consumers to measure and eliminate carbon emissions. As part of this endeavor, Sensiba joins a newly established consulting network for Change Climate’s Open Certification Program.

Change Climate launched its new Open Certification Program as an option for companies that desire additional support and expertise to meet Change Climate’s certification requirements and take meaningful climate action. Sensiba will work alongside Change Climate to offer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions measurement and certification services to businesses who desire to become Change Climate Certified.

“This was a natural partnership between Sensiba and Change Climate, which was made evident by synergies between our two organizations,” said Jennifer Cantero, director of the Sensiba Center for Sustainability at Sensiba. “It represents an exciting next step in advancing global climate action, and we are excited to be a part of that journey.”

Change Climate’s certification process is comprised of three steps: measure, reduce, and offset cradle-to-customer GHG emissions annually. Change Climate has certified over 330 brands across dozens of industries during the last year, resulting in investments of $10 million toward carbon avoidance and removal projects and reducing nearly 1.2M tonnes of carbon.

Sensiba’s team within the Sensiba Center for Sustainability has firsthand experience guiding brands through the Change Climate certification; supporting them with data collection, carbon footprint measurement, and emissions reduction action planning, informed by science-aligned targets. The Change Climate Standard provides much needed accountability and standardization for corporate actions. When paired with the Brand Emissions Estimator, both tools go hand in hand to enhance Sensiba’s ability to tailor support for companies applying for certification.

“We’re delighted to have Sensiba aligned with Change Climate to help accelerate the corporate and consumer movement towards carbon neutrality and achieving a net-zero future,” said Ellie Read, Director of Certification at Change Climate.

Change Climate is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization working with brands and consumers to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. The label, is a trusted, independent standard for climate neutrality. It is earned by brands who measure, offset, and reduce the emissions from making and delivering products and services to customers. Through its certification, brand community, consumer awareness campaigns, and suite of accessible tools and resources, Change Climate is motivating consumers to get more brands to take immediate and measurable action against the climate crisis. To learn more, visit changeclimate.org.

 ESG assessment tool that aligns with the world’s leading ESG and sustainability standards

Sensiba, an accounting and business-consulting firm, and Impakt IQ (IIQ), a leading environmental, social, and governance (ESG) assessment, reporting and intelligence tool, are excited to announce an exclusive deployment partnership to connect the dots between ESG opportunities and risk, and their impacts to an organization’s bottom-line performance.

Impakt IQ’s approach features a powerful toolset that enables companies to measure and manage their ESG intelligence. It generates an ESG score, ESG statement, and ESG report that are backed by auditable investment-grade data and aligned with the world’s leading sustainability and ESG standards, including the Task Force for Climate Change Disclosure (TCFD), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and the SEC. The Impakt IQ approach is a systems-based process that stands on the shoulders of 15+ years of experience, knowledge, and demonstrated profitable results.

The Impakt IQ tool addresses a company’s ESG blind spots and provides insight into ESG impacts, allowing executives to leverage this intelligence to make informed business decisions. The approach and toolkit help inform and connect all leaders of an organization, creating cross functional awareness and holistic insight into ESG risks, opportunities, and value creation.

The Impakt IQ report and toolkit is to ESG what a Financial Report is to finance. This tool enables organizations to evaluate and generate their ESG scores internally, giving them insight and control over their ESG management, disclosure, and narrative in a way that aligns with investor-grade standards and is fully auditable. Reporting components include:

“Accounting firms have been measuring and calculating risk from a business’s financial data forever,” says John Sensiba, managing partner of Sensiba. “With ESG issues increasingly taking center stage in today’s interconnected economy, it only makes sense that we measure and calculate risk from all the non-financial sustainability data in a standardized way as well.”

“I have been developing an ESG Intelligence tool to help business leaders evolve to sustainable business models profitably for over 15 years when I recognized the link between financial and brand performance and sustainable business practices. The missing link to scaling ESG Intelligence and this tool has been the lack of a recognized global ESG standard — that changed in November 2021 with the announcement of the ISSB and subsequently SASB and TCFD rolling up under the ISSB,” says Elisa Turner, founder of Impakt IQ. “All the pieces of the puzzle now exist, and we are excited to be scaling the Impakt IQ ESG Intelligence tool 3.0 with Sensiba. When we looked for an industry partner to team up with Sensiba and their Sensiba Center for Sustainability was the only logical choice out there, they are aligned in values and the belief that ESG performance today is interconnected to financial performance and integrated reporting is the future.”

“The Sensiba sustainability team has been beta testing this tool for several months on three separate projects; the initial feedback has been really positive as it is offering insights into areas for operational improvement and risk management” says Scott Anderson, SASB and audit partner at Sensiba. “The fact that it is aligned with SASB and TCFD, was critical to our decision making and this supports the credibility of the assessment outcomes.  This alignment also reinforces that our assessment results will segues nicely into sustainability reporting that stakeholders are increasingly requesting.”

About Impakt IQ

Impakt IQ (IIQ) helps organizations evolve to an impact performance mindset, culture, and framework that creates a material positive impact on society and the environment while building a more resilient and profitable business.​ IIQ ESG framework and reporting provides insight into what matters most and allows leadership to see “all” impact risks and opportunities relating to each other and their whole organization, backed by auditable investment-grade data and aligned with Task Force for Climate Change Disclosure (TCFD), Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and the SEC. For more information, visit impaktiq.com

 Pleasanton, CA, August 19th – Sensiba, a leading Northern California-based accounting and business consulting firm, is honored to be recognized by CREW Silicon Valley with a Community Impact Award.

“Being recognized for our push toward equitable social and environmental policies is an honor,” said John Sensiba, Managing Partner of Sensiba LLP. “Our top priority at Sensiba is to operate as a force for good and to support and inspire other businesses to do the same.”

The CREW Community Impact award recognizes a company that has exemplified a strong commitment to social, environmental, and corporate governance. The companies awarded this honor demonstrate leadership in environmental and social policies.

“Sensiba is a natural choice for this year’s CREW SV Community Impact Award,” said Nathan Donato-Weinstein, president of CREW SV. “The company’s public education and advocacy related to the B-Corp framework have elevated the conversation about corporate social responsibility in our region. In addition, Sensiba’s clear leadership on diversity, equity and inclusion serves as a model for other organizations.”

Sensiba recognizes the work of our B Corp and DEI committees, as well as Jennifer Cantero, Director of Marketing and Sustainability, in achieving this recognition.