Tick tock, it's biodiversity o'clock: introducing a time-aware stance for emancipatory extinction accounting

Purpose In response to recent calls for increased scholarly attention to time in sustainability accounting, the paper explores how time, understood as temporal viewpoints, is mobilised in accounts of biodiversity in order to uncover the roles of time in framing biodiversity performance. We introduce a ‘time-aware stance' to advance research on emancipatory extinction accounting and address temporal complexities in sustainability reporting. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study of World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Sweden's annual reports (2021–2023) and social media posts (2023) was conducted. WWF-SE's longstanding work with biodiversity makes for an instrumental case to highlight the roles of time. The analysis is organised around the idea of accounting as a process of framing, combined with Chakhovich's concept of time rationalities. Findings Five roles of time are identified: time as trend, urgency, expectation, snapshot and journey, each reflecting a viewpoint from either the past or the present. We also propose a sixth role: time as imagination, building on a viewpoint from the future. The opportunities and shortcomings of each role are discussed, highlighting the value of a time-aware stance in the framing of biodiversity performance. Originality/value The study offers practical guidance and theoretical insights on how to mobilise time in emancipatory extinction accounting. The time-aware stance can act as a lens to help organisations reconcile urgency with perseverance to guide actionable and cohesive sustainability accounts.