by Hank Boerner, Chairman – G&A Institute
Tune in to the [just launched] Corporate Reporting Dialogue – whether you are an investor, or company manager, or stakeholder with interest in corporate disclosure and structured sustainability / responsibility reporting.
This important dialogue was formally begun in June at the annual International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) conference – the effort is spreadheaded by the International Integrated Reporting Council (ICCR).
The “dialogue” is organized to include the group of prominent independent organizations that exert varying degrees of influence on (among other things) the valuation and reputation of the world’s public and private companies … by inviting, mandating, suggesting and in various ways requesting that corporate managers look to their framework or standard or approach for their ESG disclosure and reporting.
Compliance with some of the standards of the organizations that gathered are in some cases mandatory (FASB, IASB for periodic or immediate public company financial disclosure & reporting); others are voluntary for the most part (the GRI, now the most widely used for global corporate and institutional sustainability reporting); some are voluntary logically leaning toward becoming the industry norm and perhaps at some point, mandatory (SASB for corporate sustainability reporting in the USA); some have created a global norm that public companies ignore at their risk (CDP for water, carbon and supply chain disclosure).
Gathering in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, the alphabet soup of leading ESG framework purveyors and standards setters came together to talk about important topics: (1) the coming of integrated reporting (for disclosure related to financial and ESG performance and more), (2) improving the quality and consistency or comparability of the various standards and reporting frameworks that corporations are using or adopting for their reporting, and (3) these (as described) and other approaches that asset owners and manager are using to make portfolio decisions.
“More certainty” for corporates and investors is one of the worthy objectives being debated.  More certainty in sustainability reporting…greater coherence among frameworks and standards…and the subsequent investor analysis and use of same?  All users of the standards, frameworks, related requirements, and analytical approaches will cheer that worthy goal on.
The organizations now collaborating under the umbrella of the Corporate Reporting Dialogue include:

• The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI, the most widely used framework for sustainability reporting);
• CDP (formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project);
• the USA’s financial accounting standards FASB, authorized by the Congress to set accounting and financial reporting standards;
• the counterpart international body, IASB for global (non-USA) accounting standards;
• the very influential International Organization for Standardization (ISO – you know them for ISO 9001 etc.);
• Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB);
• International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC, the initiator of the dialogue);
• International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB);
• the relative newcomer and increasingly influential player, based in the USA, the Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB, which is now in the process of generating sustainability reporting standards for various sectors and industries).

Connectivity is Key:  The collaborating organizations are aiming to develop practical ways to align the direction, content and development of the various reporting frameworks, standards, etc. The initial deliverable is going to be a document highlighting the “connectivity” of the various frameworks and standards….and the relevance to the coming of integrated reporting.
In the announcement, the IIRC organizers said that “…in an interconnected world, isolated change is insufficient to reflect the complexities of modern business and investment decisions…the CRD is a collaboration to promote greater cohesion and efficiency, rebalancing reporting in favor of the reader, helping to reestablish the connection between a business and its principal stakeholders…”
Note:  Chair of the CRD is Mrs. Hugette Labelle, Chair of Transparency International and board member of IIRC.
In announcing the initiative, Paul Druckman, IIRC CEO stated: “The purpose of the CRD is to strengthen cooperation, coordination and alignment between key organizations with Integrated Reporting as the umbrella. The need for this is continuously articulated in my discussions with companies, investors, regulators and other stakeholders across the world.
“At the creation of the IIRC we set out to be a catalyst for an evolution in corporate reporting – the formation of the CRD is at the heart of this, and is a significant step towards achieving our goal.”
Tune in and follow the new CRD — whether you are an investor, or corporate manager, or other stakeholder — this conversation will affect the future of corporate sustainability disclosure and reporting.
Information at:  http://www.theiirc.org/2014/06/17/corporate-reporting-dialogue-launched-responding-to-calls-for-alignment-in-corporate-reporting/