From the IFRS Announcement:

The IFRS Foundation has today released an updated resource to help companies that wish to apply both the Integrated Reporting Framework and the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, which are complementary tools for investor-focused communications. Transition to integrated reporting: A guide to getting started provides a phased approach for implementing the Integrated Reporting Framework and helps preparers understand how IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards can be taken into account in their reporting journey.

An integrated report is a concise communication about an organisation’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects. Presenting each topic in the context of the organisation’s external environment and through a multi-capital lens, an integrated report summarises how the organisation creates, preserves or erodes value in the short, medium and long term.

Used by companies in over 75 countries around the world, the Integrated Reporting Framework drives high quality corporate reporting and connectivity between financial statements and sustainability-related financial disclosures, bringing together the information that investors need to assess a company’s ability to create value over time.

Read the full announcement and download the guide

Thanks to all who participated in our program last week. Here’s some background on the discussion and links to the IFRS Consultation of Agenda Priorities that will directly affect the path forward for our movement.

Frankfurt Conference

We opened by discussing the IFRS Integrated Thinking and Reporting Conference in Frankfurt and June. There were roughly one hundred people at this truly global conference. Our community was represented by Mary Adams and Alex Gold at the conference and a smaller meeting with leaders of IT-IR communities around the world. This webpage has the full videos of the programs. It was clear from the participation that there is a rich community of Integrated Thinking and Integrated Reporting (IT-IR) practitioners around the world with special concentrations in Europe, Japan and South Africa.

Integrated Thinking and Reporting in the New IFRS Standards

Leaders in Frankfurt repeatedly stated that the IFRS S1 and S2 sustainability standards issued shortly after the conference would incorporate the concepts of Integrated Thinking Principles and the Integrated Reporting Framework.  For reference, these standards address sustainability on two levels:

IFRS S1 provides a set of disclosure requirements designed to enable companies to communicate to investors about the sustainability-related risks and opportunities they face over the short, medium and long term. IFRS S2 sets out specific climate-related disclosures and is designed to be used with IFRS S1.  Read more

Future of IT-IR Stand-Alone Guidance is Unclear

However, it was not clear from the conference whether the Integrated Reporting Framework and the Integrated Thinking Principles have a future as standalone guidance. The IFRS has issued an RFI which asks for feedback on the proper research priorities in the coming two year. The choice is to go deeper on specific environmental and social issues or, instead, “explore how to integrate information in financial reporting beyond the requirements related to connected information in IFRS S1 and IFRS S2.”

We discussed the RFI in our community meeting last week. Here are the slides from that discussion prepared by Alex Gold. The discussion brought out the fact that there is a lot of tension globally between the need to solidify comprehensive standards and the more conceptual work of IT-IR. And since the U.S. is less apt to adopt S1, IT-IR could get lost in the shuffle.

The discussion slides highlight the key questions related to IT-IR are numbers 1,3 and 8. The message from Frankfurt was clear: the number of replies will matter. We are recommending individual responses by as many of our community members as possible. Here are key links to help you in your reply:  

• Background on the Consultation 
• RFI description and survey link

We hope that you will take a few minutes to reply to the RFI.

The Way Forward

Regardless of the outcome of this RFI, it is clear that our community needs to find a way to ensure the message of IT-IR continues to be shared and spread in the U.S. We welcome your continued input and support as we define and forge a new way forward.

We're thrilled to announce that the IFRS will be hosting its first Integrated Reporting and Thinking conference in Frankfurt Germany on June 12. 

Much more information is available here. A number of member of our Integrated Reporting U.S. Community will be there and we promise to share what we learn. 

Today, it was announced that the IFRS Foundation has consolidated the Value Reporting Foundation into its organization. The IFRS oversees the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB).

This consolidation means that the SASB Standards will become the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and will be managed through the same process and organization as global financial standards.  The Integrated Reporting Framework and Integrated Thinking Principles will be managed jointly between the IASB and the new ISSB. 

Putting aside all the acronyms, this sends a simple and powerful message to the business community: there are powerful connections between sustainability and financial performance.  Integrated Reporting and Thinking are about identifying, managing and communicating those connections.  Our community will continue to be part of the global community of integrated reporting and thinking practitioners. Stay tuned!

Author's note: This article was originally posted as a guest expert blog on the Value Reporting Foundation website. The version posted here is modified slightly to include conclusions for a US-based reader.

• Three ways to get to integrated thinking: lessons from Australia

  Alex Gold, Head of ESG at BWD Strategic

  Integrated reporting is a means to an end – and the end is not necessarily the publication of a single performance report that combines financial reporting and sustainability disclosure. Rather, the process that sits behind integrated reporting is meant to instill integrated thinking within a business. Integrated thinking supports decision-making and sustainable resource allocation by encouraging an organization to consider how it uses and affects financial and nonfinancial resources in its operations. Integrated thinking is borne from integrated reporting because developing an integrated report requires an organization to consider not only how it has created financial value, but also how it has created, preserved, or eroded other forms of value (human capital, natural resources, business relationships, intellectual capital, and the like). As a resource for integrated thinking, see the Value Reporting Foundation’s recently published Integrated Thinking Principles.

  The Integrated Reporting Framework (<IR> Framework) is the flagship resource for organizations looking to embark on integrated reporting. Anyone who has managed an integrated reporting process will tell you that integrated reporting is a journey, and an organization should not expect to achieve full compliance with the <IR> Framework immediately. Instead, the <IR> Framework guidance can be used flexibly to accommodate the particular circumstances of an organization.

  Several jurisdictions around the world have recognized the value of integrated reporting and the <IR> Framework. In Australia, the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and Recommendations (Fourth Edition) state that the principles of integrated reporting can be used by companies when preparing existing statutory reports. Furthermore, Australian excellence in integrated reporting has been recognized by the Australasian Reporting Awards, which has presented a Special Award for Integrated Reporting for several years.

  Buoyed by regulator and industry encouragement, several listed companies in Australia have begun their integrated reporting journey. The rest of this article steps through ways that Australian companies have used the <IR> Framework to instill integrated thinking and meet expectations for stronger connectivity between financial reporting and sustainability disclosure.

  Visualize how your business creates value

  An integrated report all starts with the company’s business model – which according to the <IR> Framework can be defined as “its system of transforming inputs, through its business activities, into outputs and outcomes that aims to fulfil the organization’s strategic purposes and create value over the short, medium and long term”. Articulating a business model can be a complex task, however, even before considering how it relates to its external environment. In fact, one-third of reports reviewed by the Alliance for Corporate Transparency didn’t disclose a business model at all.

  Australian examples have tackled the business model challenge by creating visualizations that map out the logic of their activities and their relationships with financial and nonfinancial resources:

• The National Roads and Motorists' Association’s business model visualization in its 2021 Annual Report positions the business within the context of its environmental externalities, while illustrating the connection between inputs, outputs, and value creation outcomes
• CPA Australia’s business model visualization in a supplemental document to its 2020 Annual Report shows the logic of how its strategic goals link to outcomes according to the IR Framework’s six capitals, while also showing societal impact through the UN Sustainable Development Goals
• Dexus’s business model visualization in its 2021 Annual Report shows how the business “transforms” its inputs into value for itself and its stakeholders, and also identifies “value drivers” for each value creation outcome – such as waste management for environmental outcomes and professional development for human capital outcomes.

• Structure the report by stakeholder outcomes

  The six capitals of the <IR> Framework – financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capital – are useful for categorizing the types of financial and nonfinancial value that a business should consider. To the unaccustomed reader, however, referring to the “six capitals” may sound opaque and academic. Furthermore, it may cause confusion for readers accustomed to the primacy of financial capital.

  Australian integrated reporters have overcome this challenge by translating the six capitals into more accessible outcome categories. Furthermore, they often structure the contents of their integrated reports by these outcomes. As the outcomes often relate to stakeholders themselves (e.g. “employees” stand in for “human capital”), the report structure ends up speaking to the outcomes generated for each stakeholder group.

  AGL Energy’s 2021 Annual Report, for example, relates their business value drivers to the six capitals as per the table below. The ensuing report structure provides a clear articulation of how the business creates value across the six capitals, thus meeting the intent of the IR Framework while using more everyday language.

  <IR> Framework six capitals	AGL Energy business value driver
  Financial	Finance
  Manufactured	Infrastructure
  Intellectual	Systems and Processes
  Human	People
  Social and Relationship	Customers Communities and Relationships
  Natural	Environment

   

  Assurance against integrated reporting principles

  Demands for independent assurance over sustainability disclosure are becoming more common, with jurisdictions such as the EU moving to require such assurance. To date, those companies obtaining independent assurance usually opt for assurance over specific data points, such as greenhouse gas emissions data or diversity breakdowns of the workforce.

  Assurance of specific data points can be contrasted with principles-based assurance, which is a qualitative endeavor that seeks to confirm how a reporter has complied with reporting principles as published in frameworks such as AA1000, GRI, or the IR Framework itself. Select Australian examples have applied principles-based assurance to their use of the <IR> Framework:

• Stockland’s 2020 reporting was independently assured against the IR Framework principles of materiality, stakeholder responsiveness, reliability and completeness
• Dexus’s 2021 Annual Report was independently assured against the Content Elements of the IR Framework
• CPA Australia’s 2020 Annual Report was independently assured to be in accordance with the IR Framework in its entirety

Assurance against <IR> Framework principles can help a business confirm that the integrated reporting process is supporting integrated thinking. The <IR> Framework principles guide how a business determines material matters, how it describes its business model, and how it engages stakeholders, among other topics. Successful application of these principles requires an organization to understand its external environment, identify factors that influence its capacity to create value (material matters) and articulate how it has incorporated these factors into its operations. Obtaining principles-based assurance not only confirms the existence of integrated thinking internally, it also sends a strong signal to the market that the business understands sustainability risks and opportunities.

Conclusion

These Australian examples are instructive because they demonstrate how companies can draw on elements of the <IR> Framework to move toward integrated thinking, no matter where they start. Furthermore, companies need not try to apply the <IR> Framework to their financial reporting immediately. There are several pathways that a company can take, including applying the <IR> Framework to voluntary reporting, as outlined in the Value Reporting Foundation’s Transition to integrated reporting: A guide to getting started.

Applying the IR Framework to voluntary reporting may be particularly appealing for US companies who recognize the need to move from CSR to integrated thinking, but who may be hesitant to overhaul their existing regulatory disclosure. The practices described in this article – visualizing the business model, structuring the report by value creation outcome, and principles-based assurance – could be deployed by any company looking to start its integrated reporting journey right now.

EFRAG has published a Discussion Paper​ on different possible approaches for better information on intangibles. EFRAG is asking constituents whether preparers can provide better information on intangibles, and if so, how. Comments are welcome by 30 June 2022.​ Read more here. 

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Professional accountants have an active role to play in determining the way climate change information is reported in the upcoming 2021 reporting cycle and is enhanced in future years. In a new statement released today, IFAC continues to advocate and support the profession’s role in enabling climate action by providing transparency and insights on the financial impacts of climate change. 

In this statement, IFAC: 

·       Summarizes the information concerns of investors, regulators, and policy makers. 

·       Reviews current standard-setter responses. 

·       Recommends how, and the extent to which, companies and accountants can address these concerns in the 2021 reporting cycle. 

Read the statement.  

As an increasing number of businesses around the world implement integrated reporting as a route to long-term value creation and sustainable development, the demand for assurance services on such reports is expected to rise accordingly.

To help meet this demand, and to increase confidence in integrated reporting, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) and the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) today are launching a new joint initiative, Accelerating Integrated Reporting Assurance in the Public Interest.

The initiative, which will be rolled out in installments, is designed to heighten awareness of key issues, drive constructive conversation with and among key stakeholders, and encourage providers and users of assurance services in particular to lend their voices to the effort.

Find out more and read the first installment here: https://bit.ly/2NA6CYY

In this podcast Accountancy Europe speak to Vic Petri, CEO and Founder of Performance Innovations and former Partner at PwC, to learn about how to maintain motivation and drive. He was a global lead on human capital, focused on resolving mental health issues to guide teams to better performance and a healthier work environment. He discusses how to face mental health issues during an ongoing worldwide pandemic and also how the accountancy profession must embrace change to be ready for the future. He urges a fundamental shift in the leadership paradigm, where the leader serves the team, not the other way around. 

This article provides a comprehensive summary of the status and prospects for sustainabillity reporting in the EU: https://www.allianceforcorporatetransparency.org/news/countdown-reform.html

In the latter part of February we expect to see the final report from EFRAG to the European Commission setting out recommendations on possible EU non-financial reporting standards in a revised Non-Financial Reporting Directive. Read more here: https://www.efrag.org/About/Governance/44/European-Lab-PTF-on-preparatory-work-for-the-elaboration-of-possible-EU-non-financial-reporting-standards--PTF-NFRS#:~:text=European%20Lab%20PTF%2DNFRS%20Chairman&text=He%20became%20President%20of%20Mazars,President%20of%20the%20Mazars%20Group