Accounting for Sustainability

As the current awardee of the David E. Tinius Endowed Professorship in Accounting, Professor Valentina Zamora’s innovative curriculum and research are making strides in incorporating sustainability values into accounting—and receiving national attention.

The endowed professorship, in the Albers School of Business and Economics, was established in 2010 in honor of Professor David Tinius’s 35 years of teaching and leadership as Chair of the Department of Accounting. The endowment was created from more than 300 gifts, many of them from former students of Professor Tinius who were impacted by his teaching and mentoring.

Paul Bialek, ’82, had Tinius as his first professor in the Albers Accounting program and served on the committee that helped raise funds to establish the endowment.

“Dave left a profound mark within the financial and accounting community. He was a fabulous professor and he also fostered a great environment as the chair to empower all of the professors who worked very much in tandem with each other,” Bialek says. “Dave’s contributions to us all cannot be overstated. He is very worthy of the endowment in his name.”

Through the endowment, Tinius continues to leave a significant legacy at Albers. Last academic year, Zamora piloted a project that broadens the scope of a graduate accounting course to include learning activities related to Environmental, Social and Governance. These activities develop accounting students’ sustainability literacy in navigating sustainability related reporting, assurance and analysis.

Zamora’s students used STARS reports to assess data trends in sustainability measures on campus and suggest actions to improve the scores. STARS, or Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating Systems, is a national reporting tool for universities to measure their sustainability performance.

Seattle University first submitted a STARS report in 2016, receiving a GOLD rating with a score of 69.41. The most recent report from 2024 achieved a GOLD rating with a score of 83.87, making Seattle University #1 of all the GOLD STARS-rated schools and placing it in the Top 10 of all STARS-rated higher education institutions in the country.

This project utilized Seattle University as a “living lab” for students—a real-life environment to observe the lifecycle of innovation to create impact.

“SU is uniquely well-suited as a living lab setting because of our academic mission and Laudato Si’ commitment, as well as SU’s recent recognition as one among only a few higher education institutions with the highest quality sustainability data,” says Zamora, referring to STARS.

Professor Zamora guided students through the Ignatian Pedagogical Paradigm approach of context, experience, reflection, action and evaluation on a sustainability measure they chose, which was later presented at a Seattle University Earth Talk event as part of festivities around Earth Day.

Mira Chang, ‘25 MS, was one of the students in Zamora’s course and presented her project at Earth Talks.

“Working on the project for Seattle University’s STARS report broadened my perspective on the role of accounting by highlighting its significant contribution to sustainability,” Chang says. “Analyzing Seattle University’s progress toward sustainability goals using quantitative data and reviewing the independent assurance report made me realize that accounting extends beyond financial metrics. It plays a vital role in measuring, validating and guiding organizations toward sustainable practices.”

Zamora was accepted to co-present with Center for Environmental Justice and Sustainability Interim Director Yolanda Cieters at the 2024 Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Conference and Expo last October. Their presentation, “Using STARS to Teach Sustainability (in Accounting): Reporting, Assurance and Analysis,” discussed the innovative accounting course project that inspired students to think critically about sustainability and incorporated student work to advance university sustainability goals.

With support from the professorship, Zamora can also pursue research projects focused on accounting practices in nonprofit organizations and the integration of AI. With two manuscripts under review and another project in the submission process, Zamora continues innovating accounting practices toward a more just and humane world.