Sustainable reporting

Happy New Year!

Just before Christmas, I attended the Accounting for Sustainability Forum in London, UK. The forum was attended by representatives from global businesses, audit firms and professional bodies, among others. The forum had considerable alignment with the climate change discussions occurring simultaneously among world leaders in Copenhagen.

It was agreed that we would form a committee that would oversee development of a global ‘integrated reporting’ model. The model would connect the reporting of an organisation’s strategy, risk and financial and sustainability performance.

I found the forum to be an extremely valuable experience, particularly given the Institute’s work on Broad Based Business reporting which not only fits with the breadth of thinking that has been happening with the concept of integrated reporting around the world, but has been at the forefront in terms of thinking and content. Overall there was strong conviction by all at the forum that accountants and the profession need to play a leadership role when it comes to global sustainability challenges.

I also left the forum with some trepidation. One of the biggest challenges to the success of integrated reporting is the current level of global dissatisfaction with financial statements – that is, the issues about the size of statements, complexity, too much detail, etc. I was left thinking: if we add to financial statement reporting with broader integrated focus, will all of this useful and relevant information be left by the wayside because of the current concerns with financial statements?

Where do you see the future of reporting heading?