International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC) formed to pursue sustainability accounting framework

  • IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Committee) (green) Image

02 Aug, 2010

The Prince's Accounting for Sustainability Project (A4S) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have announced the formation of the International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC). The IIRC aims to create a globally accepted framework for accounting for sustainability, bringing together financial, environmental, social and governance information in an "integrated" format.

The IIRC brings together a cross section of representatives from civil society and the corporate, accounting, securities, regulatory, NGO, IGO and standard-setting sectors. It comprises a Steering Committee and a Working Group. The Steering Committee is chaired by Sir Michael Peat, Principal Private Secretary to TRH The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall. Membership of the IIRC Steering Committee includes Sir David Tweedie (IASB Chairman), Robert H. Herz (FASB Chairman), Jane Diplock, (Chairperson, IOSCO Executive Committee), Robert Bunting (IFAC President), Jim Quigley (Chief Executive Officer of Deloitte), and many others.

More information about the IIRC follows:

Purpose of the IIRC

The IIRC is being created to respond to the need for a concise, clear, comprehensive and comparable integrated reporting framework structured around the organisation's strategic objectives, its governance and business model and integrating both material financial and non-financial information.

The objectives for an integrated reporting framework are to:

  • support the information needs of long-term investors, by showing the broader and longer-term consequences of decision-making
  • reflect the interconnections between environmental, social, governance and financial factors in decisions that affect long-term performance and condition, making clear the link between sustainability and economic value
  • provide the necessary framework for environmental and social factors to be taken into account systematically in reporting and decision-making
  • rebalance performance metrics away from an undue emphasis on short term financial performance
  • bring reporting closer to the information used by management to run the business on a day-to-day basis.

Role of the IIRC

The role of the IIRC is to:

  • raise awareness of this issue and develop a consensus among governments, listing authorities, business, investors, accounting bodies and standard setters for the best way to address it
  • develop an overarching integrated reporting framework setting out the scope of integrated reporting and its key components
  • identify priority areas where additional work is needed and provide a plan for development
  • consider whether standards in this area should be voluntary or mandatory and facilitate collaboration between standard-setters and convergence in the standards needed to underpin integrated reporting
  • promote the adoption of integrated reporting by relevant regulators and report preparers.

Click for press release (PDF 66k). The IIRC website can be accessed at www.integratedreporting.org

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