![\"\"](\"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/424\/2020\/12\/gina3.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nShe searched Deloitte\u2019s in-house directory to look for sustainability-oriented people and teams working on sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics. She also joined an internal network of grassroots \u201cgreen teams,\u201d which focused on educating fellow professionals on sustainability, and engaging Deloitte to take further action.
\u201cIn the beginning, we focused on small tasks in the office, like improving recycling signage near the trash and recycling cans, or encouraging Delotite professionals to bring their own mugs and water bottles to work,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I would work on a client site with my audit team, I would be an ambassador for sustainability, bringing attention to plastic utensils for our takeout meals, or the packaging for the snacks we would purchase.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It wasn\u2019t exactly world-changing work, but it was a start. And it put her in touch with a network of like-minded Deloitte professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After two years, Miani was finishing up busy seasons for an audit client, when an email went out to the firm\u2019s green team network about a one-year rotation to work on Deloitte\u2019s own sustainability initiatives full-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis opportunity seemed too good to be true,\u201d she says. \u201cI was at the right level to apply for the role, and given that it was a rotation, I felt comfortable knowing that the move didn\u2019t have to be permanent. I could always go back to audit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She got the job. For the next year, Miani and a small team worked on developing Deloitte\u2019s global strategy to address climate change, engage with Deloitte colleagues across the globe, and report on Deloitte\u2019s efforts, in accordance with sustainability reporting standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a year in that role, she\u2019s back to client work. But now, instead of financial audits, Miani serves on a team that helps companies develop sustainability strategies, assess and disclose climate risks and opportunities, report in accordance with sustainability standards and frameworks, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI see myself staying in sustainability client-service work for the foreseeable future,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are so many different avenues to explore in a sustainability-focused career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her Jenkins MAC, she says has been good preparation for a career in sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHaving a foundation of accounting knowledge, and gaining skills through the MAC program has been invaluable to me,\u201d she says. \u201cThese types of skills are universal and transferable: A strong ability to research information, being able to interpret a standard and apply that information on the job… These are extremely valuable, no matter which role or field you work in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Miani, asking questions and being transparent \u2014 from that day in Showalter\u2019s class to the hallways at Deloitte \u2014 was key. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI made it known I was passionate and knowledgeable about sustainability,\u201d Miani says. \u201cI wore my passions on my sleeve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n Gina Miani\u2019s friends used to ask her why she was studying accounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re so passionate about the environment, shouldn\u2019t you study something more closely related?,\u201d they\u2019d ask her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Miani, who earned bachelor\u2019s and master\u2019s degrees in accounting at the NC State University\u2019s Poole College of Management, always told them that perhaps one day she would use her business mindset for good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three years after graduating, (Jenkins MAC 2017), Miani has found herself \u2014 through personal initiative \u2014 doing exactly that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It began with a remark Scott Showalter, professor of the practice of accounting and director of the Jenkins MAC Program, made one day in class about the intersection of sustainability and accounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI went up to him after class,\u201d Miani recalls, \u201cand asked if there were any classes or opportunities that would dive deeper into that intersection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Miani ended up taking an independent study class with Showalter on the topic. It opened her eyes to the growing field of sustainability accounting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors and regulators are increasingly asking \u2014 or requiring \u2014 companies to document their efforts to be more environmentally sustainable, reduce their carbon footprint and manage their climate-change risks. Global standards are emerging for these activities, and accountants play a key role in helping companies measure and report their activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course, a single class doesn\u2019t create a career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Miani graduated and went into auditing work at Deloitte, a fairly typical career path for a new CPA. But she didn\u2019t lose sight of her interest in sustainability and the environment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She searched Deloitte\u2019s in-house directory to look for sustainability-oriented people and teams working on sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) topics. She also joined an internal network of grassroots \u201cgreen teams,\u201d which focused on educating fellow professionals on sustainability, and engaging Deloitte to take further action. It wasn\u2019t exactly world-changing work, but it was a start. And it put her in touch with a network of like-minded Deloitte professionals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After two years, Miani was finishing up busy seasons for an audit client, when an email went out to the firm\u2019s green team network about a one-year rotation to work on Deloitte\u2019s own sustainability initiatives full-time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis opportunity seemed too good to be true,\u201d she says. \u201cI was at the right level to apply for the role, and given that it was a rotation, I felt comfortable knowing that the move didn\u2019t have to be permanent. I could always go back to audit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She got the job. For the next year, Miani and a small team worked on developing Deloitte\u2019s global strategy to address climate change, engage with Deloitte colleagues across the globe, and report on Deloitte\u2019s efforts, in accordance with sustainability reporting standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a year in that role, she\u2019s back to client work. But now, instead of financial audits, Miani serves on a team that helps companies develop sustainability strategies, assess and disclose climate risks and opportunities, report in accordance with sustainability standards and frameworks, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI see myself staying in sustainability client-service work for the foreseeable future,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are so many different avenues to explore in a sustainability-focused career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her Jenkins MAC, she says has been good preparation for a career in sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHaving a foundation of accounting knowledge, and gaining skills through the MAC program has been invaluable to me,\u201d she says. \u201cThese types of skills are universal and transferable: A strong ability to research information, being able to interpret a standard and apply that information on the job... These are extremely valuable, no matter which role or field you work in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Miani, asking questions and being transparent \u2014 from that day in Showalter\u2019s class to the hallways at Deloitte \u2014 was key. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI made it known I was passionate and knowledgeable about sustainability,\u201d Miani says. \u201cI wore my passions on my sleeve.\u201d<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Gina Miani\u2019s friends used to ask her why she was studying accounting. \u201cYou\u2019re so passionate about the environment, shouldn\u2019t you study something more closely related?,\u201d they\u2019d ask her. But Miani,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"backgroundColor\":\"gray_600\",\"caption\":\"\",\"displayCategoryID\":398}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,323,398,286,1],"tags":[],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-17687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-accounting","category-graduate","category-mac-program","category-newswire","category-uncategorized"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":398,"name":"Jenkins MAC Program News","slug":"mac-program","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":398,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Master of Accounting Program News","parent":1810,"count":203,"filter":"raw"},"acf":{"ncst_posts_meta_modified_date":null},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17687"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17723,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17687\/revisions\/17723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17687"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=17687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/poole.ncsu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/424\/2020\/12\/gina2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the beginning, we focused on small tasks in the office, like improving recycling signage near the trash and recycling cans, or encouraging Delotite professionals to bring their own mugs and water bottles to work,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I would work on a client site with my audit team, I would be an ambassador for sustainability, bringing attention to plastic utensils for our takeout meals, or the packaging for the snacks we would purchase.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n