Colin's research projects have explored accountability issues with a particular focus on social accounting and reporting. He has worked with the fair-trade organisation Traidcraft plc to develop new forms of social accounting and bookkeeping. He recently undertook research on behalf of Prince Charles's Accounting for Sustainability charity. This project is aimed at both practitioner and academic audiences, based around case studies of organisations participating in the project's Connected Reporting Framework initiative. Colin's other main interest is in the practice of external social accounting. External accounts are undertaken not by organisations themselves, but by others who are not part of the organisations whose conduct they consider to be unacceptable. External accounting processes and practices problematise organisational conduct from the perspective of oppressed social groups and/or ecological systems.