What is the Future of Integrated Reporting?

On June 29, Principal and Co-owner Barb Brown had the privilege of attending the New York Roundtable Meeting of the International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC). Before the meeting we created a survey to solicit insights on the importance of integrated reporting. The participants provided us valuable feedback that we were able to share with the constituents at the IIRC meeting, and we’re pleased to share our thoughts on the meeting and high-level survey results with you.

We were honored to participate in the Roundtable alongside many thought leaders in this field, including Paul Druckman (Accounting for Sustainability), Bob Eccles (co-author of OneReport and Harvard professor), Dina Dublon (Independent Director of PepsiCo, Accenture and Microsoft Perspective) and others.  The IIRC’s stated goals are to raise awareness around integrated reporting, develop a comprehensive framework for integrated reporting, and help companies along this journey.  Several speakers gave their perspectives on the notion of integrated reporting, the majority of which reinforced stakeholders’ desire to understand the material link of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues to financial performance.  This led to a discussion emphasizing the need for a clear standard around materiality which factors in how externalities, such as the lack of pricing mechanisms around carbon and water, impact an organization’s ability to adequately report on these issues.

The program was both interesting and provocative with the IIRC openly seeking pilot companies to help co-create what integrated reporting might become.  The IIRC plans to release a discussion paper within the next few weeks, the content of which we will share with you.  From our perspective, it remains clear that integrated reporting is in the very nascent stages of development.  Seasoned sustainability reporters, most likely companies within the Global 250, will be the first to consider this avenue for future reporting.  For first-time or small and mid-cap reporters, we would continue to recommend the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Framework.  When used as a management process, we believe the GRI is an effective tool for organizations to identify and manage their material ESG impacts.  We are also enthusiastic about the development of GRI’s G4 reporting framework, and are confident it will lead to more effective sustainability reporting until a truly integrated reporting solution is established by the IIRC.

To view the survey results please click here.

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