Recent sustainability and integrated reporting developments

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Dec 06, 2016

In December 2016, the United States Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) published it's first annual "State of Disclosure Report" and the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) published the results of a first stakeholder feedback survey.

The SASB's State of Disclosure Report is a reference document that provides an overview of the quality of existing corporate disclosure across 79 industries in hundreds of SEC filings across every major industry. The report shows 81 percent of all disclosures analyzed across all SASB disclosure topics indicate some level of disclosure in SEC filings. However, more than 53 percent use boilerplate language and less than 24 percent of these disclosures contain metrics – demonstrating that many companies take a minimally compliant approach to sustainability disclosure. Review the report on the SASB's website.

The purpose of the IIRC's stakeholder feedback survey was to obtain views on integrated reporting and on the work of the IIRC. While 87 percent of responses strongly agree or agree that integrated reporting promotes a more joined up and efficient approach to corporate reporting, views on the work of the IIRC are more mixed with 45 percent of the total global responses saying they do not know whether the institutional arrangements for the IIRC are appropriate to the overall aims of the IIRC relating to integrated reporting. Review the report on the IIRC's website.

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