Towards an International Integrated Reporting landscape The role of business has changed. No longer is it sufficient or acceptable for companies just to make money. Nowadays, companies have to behave well in their pursuit of profit and growth. They have to balance the interests of their business with the interests of society and the environment. Over the last century, the impact of business has grown exponentially. But so too has the social context in which companies operate. Companies therefore need to show they are aware of their role in society, and of the many responsibilities that come with influence and power. They need to show they’re creating value not only for shareholders, but for a whole range of stakeholders over the long-term. Reporting and business operations have always gone hand-in-hand. While there is a strong argument for a holistic approach – one that enables an organisation to address these different needs and tell its full and definitive story – it is clear that for those companies that are yet to take their first steps on this journey, producing an integrated report cannot be achieved without a fundamental rethink of the approach taken to the business activities and processes of the organisation and vice versa. In the last few years, expectations have been further heightened by the global economic crisis. These days, investors and other stakeholders are increasingly looking for financial and non-financial accountability. They want impact awareness to be echoed in corporate decision making and reporting. The regulatory landscape has also evolved, with a proliferation of standards at both national and international level. This has led to a number of countries developing sustainability reporting guidance and frameworks. It has also paved the way for integrated reporting which, according to the International Integrated Reporting Committee (IIRC), should “demonstrate the linkages between an organisation’s strategy, governance and financial performance and the social, environmental and economic context within which it operates”. if the IIRC can overcome this hurdle, then it represents an excellent opportunity to lay the foundations for a truly robust and international framework for integrated Corporate Reporting. As we wait to see what form the IIRC’s framework will take, we can look to South Africa, where the Integrated Reporting Committee has released its own framework for discussion. The King Code of Governance Principles for South Africa 2009 (King III) states that “current incremental changes towards sustainability are not sufficient – a fundamental shift in the way companies and directors act and organise themselves is needed”. Its recently published framework recommends integrated reporting as a good way of assessing governance structure and processes. Only through integrated reporting, it argues, can we tell whether a company can truly identify its major impacts and whether these impacts have been incorporated into strategy and risk management. The International Integrated Reporting Committee In August 2010, the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability Project and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced the formation of the IIRC, whose remit is “to create a globally accepted framework for accounting for sustainability”. There has been huge support for the Committee since its inception and it would seem to have every chance of succeeding – with public consultation in mid 2011 and proposals for integrated reporting to be put forward at the G20 Finance Ministers meetings in October. It is so often the case that frameworks or voluntary guidance lack high-level universal buy-in, but Research focus: country by country In this research document we look at integrated reporting on a countryby-country basis. We examine a sample of over 100 companies from eight of the G20 countries, with representation from both developed and emerging markets. Our main aim is to assess to what extent financial and non-financial environmental, societal and governance reporting has been integrated in the Annual Reports at 2 Towards Global Sustainability A country by country review of the international integrated reporting landscape