Commentary: Integrated Reporting, IR, and Advocacy
In this issue we address our fifth pillar — Integrated Reporting, Investor Relations (IR), and Public Advocacy. This pillar is the same as the fourth pillar in the TCFD framework, except we add the element of advocacy. We know the SEC is reviewing its position on ESG disclosures and will likely make their determinations before the year is out. We are concerned by poor standards for reporting on ESG performance and not including them as part of financial reporting.
This may change thanks to a recent proposal from the IFRS Foundation (working with the IASM, the international version of the U.S. FASB). If adopted, CFOs will have a much clearer view of how to report on a company’s sustainability measures. Most companies today divorce their sustainability reports from their financial reports. This is due to a host of reasons, not the least of which are the issues related to assurance, Dodd-Frank, and Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. This makes it difficult to see the linkage between short-term financial performance and the long-term risks of climate change and biodiversity loss. The proposal from the IFRS, supported by the IASM, will make it possible for integrated reporting to be realized for employees, shareholders, and other stakeholders alike. This proposal is supported by former CEO of UNILEVER Paul Polman, CalPERS, Oxford University Business School, and many others.
The Harvard Business Review recently published an excellent article on integrated ESG reporting and the role accounting plays. The authors say that the creation of a Sustainability Standards Board (SSB), a proposal from the IFRS, would help with the complexities of ESG reporting. They write: "The world faces enormous challenges in securing a sustainable future. But the adoption of the SSB, a little known but vastly important revolution in accounting, would represent an essential early step in the right direction."
In the meantime, the board of advisors of the INTEGRATE21 conference recommends getting ahead of these complex issues before standards are formalized and legislation is in place. This is coming down the pike fast, and savvy CFOs will be in front of these issues, as they also have profound implications for market competitiveness and the future of the planet and our society.
To learn more about integrated reporting, assurance, IR, and advocacy, please join us at the VIRTUALINTEGRATE21 Conference November 8-10.
Join us at INTEGRATE21!
Speakers at the INTEGRATE21 conference include Robert Jackson, Former Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission, who will provide information about the latest changes on climate change declaration and other coming requirements at the SEC, and Scott Mather, EVP and CIO of PIMCO, who will give an update on how the UNGC CFO Taskforce for the SDGs is progressing.
Join us (virtually) in November for INTEGRATE21, the leading conference dedicated exclusively to equipping you with actionable insights to lead the transition to regenerative finance. See the agenda and register today!
Welcome Fiona Shutt, executive director and former CFO of WorkSafe Victoria.
Fiona is a commercial leader committed to adding value and affecting change through culture. She has built a reputation for being proactive, enterprise-wide approach, and strong relationships across the community. She’s passionate about achieving exponential value through high performance cultures. Fiona loves nothing more than building thriving, purpose-driven people and operations in the pursuit of sustainable outcomes. She sees driving major transformation and change programs through reinvigorated internal cultures and a philosophy of people-led growth. In parallel, maintaining cost efficiencies for improved long-term financial sustainability.
Insights
CFOs can — and should — confront climate risk issues and tackle them head on. This recent Means and Matters article explores how, and shares the growing consensus that climate change poses systemic risk to the global financial system. Governance
ICE Climate Risk sits at the cutting edge of modern ESG tools, with the most advanced growing remarkably sophisticated in recent years as those who invest in a variety of asset classes pay rapt attention to ESG issues. “ESG is definitely evolving,” says Mark Heckert, who oversees ICE’s fixed income and data services products. Governance
Capital can close overnight once an issue hits its tipping point, according to a recent article written by Claire Ballentine and published by Fortune and Bloomberg. Investing
ESG factors are becoming increasingly important to investors, employees, legislators, and regulators, and General Councils are becoming increasingly engaged in how to adapt to this rapidly evolving ESG landscape. Reporting
Jasper sees firsthand the energy that mission-aligned, catalytic capital sparks. He guides RSF in revolutionizing how people relate to and work with money, leading a talented team that develops innovative giving, investing, and lending programs to address the significant social, environmental, and economic challenges of our time. In regenerative finance the goal is to make positive change possible, with the financial return as a by-product. Regenerative finance sees money as a means, not as an end. It’s about circulation, not accumulation.
Featured ESG Investment — Governance
This is a little different than our typical environmental innovation feature. This is about the exponential growth of blockchain and the ramifications as a tool for enhanced corporate governance and transparency. We recently learned about theJournal at Stanford on Blockchain Law. Corporations and other forms of business organizations can be supplemented with blockchain-based agency constructs. Blockchain-based decentralized autonomous organizations (“DAOs”) expand the definition of the firm. On-chain DAO governance enables dynamic regulatory features that facilitate unprecedented decentralized regulatory solutions.
Up & Coming Events
See most of the U.S. environmental finance events in this one place.
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