Understanding Integrated Reporting

"Integrated Reporting is the big new development in corporate reporting that everyone is talking about. Why? Quite simply, Integrated Reporting marks a paradigm shift in the way companies and other organizations think about business models and the creation of value. Integrated Reporting promotes long term thinking about value-creation and stewardship across a broad base of interdependent capitals – financial, manufactured, human, intellectual, natural, and social and relationship.With updated references and case studies to take account of the latest developments in Integrated Reporting, this book provides a practical and expert distillation of for IR professionals.Internationally renowned sustainability reporting expert and accountant Dr Carol Adams explains in simple terms what is and how to do it; how it links with other reporting frameworks and what it means in terms of thinking and processes. You'll also get a clear business case for IR and insights and best practice examples from leading integrated reporters. Integrated Reporting is not just for companies.This book demonstrates how integrated thinking and IR can benefit many other organizations whose success and influence depends on relationships and partnerships."--Provided by publisher.

Integrated Reporting is the big new development in corporate reporting that everyone is talking about. Why? Quite simply, Integrated Reporting marks a paradigm shift in the way companies and other organizations think about business models and the creation of value. Integrated Reporting promotes long term thinking about value-creation and stewardship across a broad base of interdependent capitals – financial, manufactured, human, intellectual, natural, and social and relationship.With updated references and case studies to take account of the latest developments in Integrated Reporting, this book provides a practical and expert distillation of for IR professionals.Internationally renowned sustainability reporting expert and accountant Dr Carol Adams explains in simple terms what is and how to do it; how it links with other reporting frameworks and what it means in terms of thinking and processes. You'll also get a clear business case for IR and insights and best practice examples from leading integrated reporters. Integrated Reporting is not just for companies.This book demonstrates how integrated thinking and IR can benefit many other organizations whose success and influence depends on relationships and partnerships.

An in-depth, enlightening look at the integrated reporting movement The Integrated Reporting Movement explores the meaning of the concept, explains the forces that provide momentum to the associated movement, and examines the motives of the actors involved. The book posits integrated reporting as a key mechanism by which companies can ensure their own long-term sustainability by contributing to a sustainable society. Although integrated reporting has seen substantial development due to the support of companies, investors, and the initiatives of a number of NGOs, widespread regulatory intervention has yet to materialize. Outside of South Africa, adoption remains voluntary, accomplished via social movement abetted, to varying degrees, by market forces. In considering integrated reporting’s current state of play, the authors provide guidance to ensure wider adoption of the practice and success of the movement, starting with how companies can improve their own reporting processes. But the support of investors, regulators, and NGOs is also important. All will benefit, as will society as a whole. Readers will learn how integrated reporting has evolved over the years, where frameworks and standards are today, and the practices that help ensure effective implementation—including, but not limited to an extensive discussion of information technology’s role in reporting and the importance of corporate reporting websites. The authors introduce the concepts of an annual board of directors’ “Statement of Significant Audiences and Materiality” and a “Sustainable Value Matrix” tool that translates the statement into management decisions. The book argues that the appropriate combination of market and regulatory forces to speed adoption will vary by country, concluding with four specific recommendations about what must be done to accelerate high quality adoption of integrated reporting around the world.

Better Corporate Reporting outlines the latest frameworks for enhancing non-financial and sustainability reporting. It shows you how to integrate non-financial data into your reporting and overall strategy, creating long-term value, trust and transparency. It includes guides to: the International Integrated Reporting Council's new framework; the Global Reporting Initiative's G4 framework; and a detailed look at the concept at the heart of both of these new frameworks, materiality. It is the compilation of 3 bestselling sustainability guides on sustainability reporting.Understanding Integrated Reporting provides a practical and expert distillation of the new IR framework released by the International Integrated Reporting Council in December 2013. It explains what IR is and how to do it; how it links with other reporting frameworks and what it means in terms of thinking and processes. You'll also get a clear business case for IR and insights and best practice examples from leading integrated reporters. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) G4 Sustainability Reporting Framework was launched in May 2013. In Understanding G4, corporate reporting veteran Elaine Cohen presents an easy-to-follow review of everything any organization needs to know to decide whether to use the G4 Framework and if so, how. Materiality is the lynch-pin that can align your sustainability initiatives with your overall strategy. Making Sustainability Matter shows you how to identify your organization's most material sustainability issues, allocate resources to sustainability initiatives for optimal returns; connect your communications and reporting to materiality, and; clarify which issues are important to your stakeholders. Materiality is a core concept in both the GRI's new G4 framework the IIRC's new Integrated Reporting framework.

Sustainability, the environment, corporate accountability, social justice, integration – these are the buzzwords of our century. This book takes readers on a journey through the landscape of standard-setting giants and corporate reporting paradigms through the eyes of two companies that have taken very different paths toward integrated thinking. Both stories provide new insights into the transition to integrated reporting, as envisaged by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), and how integrated reporting is reshaping our views on transparency. However, the top-down approach adopted in studies of integrated reporting in practice has left many questions unanswered: Is it effective? How does it evolve into established practice? Is it just another management fad? This bottom-up critique answers all these questions and one more: Could integrated reporting become the corporate reporting norm? We shall see. Given its depth of coverage, the book appeals to IIRC academic community, participants in integrated reporting networks, and others interested in integrated reporting.

This book analyses the contribution of the new forms of reporting adopted by Public Sector Organisations in the provision of information on value creation processes to their various stakeholders. The contributors to this volume provide evidence of innovative accounting practices and reporting formats, drawing on case studies from across Europe. Together, they highlight the limitations and opportunities of these new forms of reporting that will require further study and exploration.

This book focuses on the accounting change processes that drive integrated reporting in the public sector. The Integrated Report is a tool that allows public sector entities to quantify and convey those aspects of their organization, strategy, governance and performance that lead to the creation of public value over time. To be successfully introduced, integrated reporting must follow a specific path of accounting change. The context in which public sector entities operate, and the unique relationship between the public sector and the environment, redefine the accounting process of change to deliver an integrated report. The authors provide a fresh look at integrated reporting on the basis of the accounting change processes that drive it, helping academics and practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges and benefits in terms of public value creation.

This book critically examines the implementation and adoption of integrated reporting (IR) in organizations and corporations. A relatively new area of policy and practice, IR has rapidly gained considerable prominence since the formation of the International Integrated Reporting Committee in 2010. The book analyzes the outcomes and benefits as well as the shortfalls of integrated reporting. It offers an introduction to the foundations of IR and a comprehensive overview of its use through a number of detailed case studies. Lastly, it discusses the outlook for further developments in sustainability accounting and reporting.