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XBRL = Assurance 101May 31st, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
One of our panel questions at the recent GRI conference was focused this issue: How do you assure sustainability data to give investors and others more confidence in the provenance of the data? Well the short answer is simple: Use XBRL to prepare it. Read the rest of this entry » Why the GRI XBRL Taxonomy Is ImportantMay 31st, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
While the GRI indicator sets continue to proliferate, the GRI XBRL taxonomy has not yet gained much traction in the sustainability reporting community. This is partly due to the immaturity of the taxonomy. But it’s also due to the fact that the GRI and its stakeholders perhaps do not understand the value it adds to the endgame of raising the availability and transparency of sustainability data and further enabling integrated reporting. Read the rest of this entry » 3. A Taxonomy Driven Transparency Reporting EcosystemMay 31st, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
2010 will see the first convening of the International Connected/Integrated Reporting Committee – expected to be in London in July. The meeting will undoubtedly discuss the committee’s two key proposals:
But I think a proposal is missing: 3. Build a Taxonomy Driven Transparency Reporting Ecosystem Corporate POVs: Performance vs. BehaviourMay 24th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
One of the techniques of screenwriting (disclosure: wannabee screenwriter talking) involves thinking about point-of-view (POV) when writing a scene. For example, this means thinking about whose POV the scene is focused on or how the scene may benefit from switching from one character’s POV to another. Anything that helps to give the scene more clarity or depth. And it’s no different with corporate reporting, except that one POV – financial – has always dominated. But that’s gonna change. Read the rest of this entry » The Value in ESG RiskMay 24th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
As a follow-up to my previous post on the One Report book I’d like to highlight one of the many useful takeaways from the book, found on page 149. Here the authors address a critical issue for the ‘One Report’ camp, namely ‘quantifying the value’ of CSR. Or as I believe the Founder of Wendys was prone to say ‘Where’s the Beef’ (still not quite as catchy as ‘thats a some spicy meatball’ but you can’t have everything). Read the rest of this entry » No New Information?May 23rd, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
In their excellent book One Report: Integrated Reporting for Sustainable Strategy, authors Eccles and Krzus make brief references to the use of XBRL. But, IMHO, they minimize the importance that an XBRL taxonomy for sustainability reporting can bring to the table, with statements like (p.70): “It is important to remember to emphasize that XBRL is simply (my italics) an information standard, like HTML, for making it easier to collect, report, and reuse information…It does not make new information available.” So I’d like to unpick that a little… Alone With OthersMay 22nd, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
I’ve been preparing for my trip to the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) conference in Amsterdam by reading Stephen Batchelor’s book Alone With Others: An Existential Approach to Buddhism. The book has a lot to say that is of relevance to the rising demand for ‘integrated’ and ‘one report’ corporate reporting. In fact I would go so far as to say it provides a useful philosophical rationale for why a new kind of corporate reporting is both necessary and well overdue. Read the rest of this entry » Trends in Sustainability ReportingMay 20th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) recently released its research report into Trends in Sustainability Reporting, which makes interesting reading. In my ignorance, I had not realized that the GRI’s XBRL taxonomy has already had an outing. The Italian Bank, Banca Monte Paschi dei Siena, trialed the GRI’s initial XBRL taxonomy to tag their 2007 sustainability report. You can review their excellent interactive CSR report online here. Read the rest of this entry » Myths of Sustainability ReportingMay 19th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Daniel Roberts recently posted an article entitled CSR/Sustainability Reporting: 6 recent myths that is well worth a read and up to his usual high standards. As Daniel points out, although there is no XBRL standard taxonomy for sustainability reporting there are some worthy candidates for use as input into such a taxonomy including the Society of Investment Professionals in Germany (DVFAs) metrics for Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) that you can read about here. Buried in the detail of the DVFA document is actually enough of a specification from which to build an XBRL taxonomy. A credit to German efficiency. Also worth a look are the UK Government Department DEFRA’s Environmental KPIs and the findings from the UK’s 2007 Sustainable Development in Government report for coverage of some ‘big picture’ items. Recently the DVFA have gone further and began to call for an ESG reporting link to IFRS and the introduction of KPNs – Key Performance Narratives – consisting of specific questions with a limit on the length of the answer. 2010: The Year of Sustainability Reporting?May 17th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Our esteemed President, Patrick Quinlan, is hoping to be in Amsterdam next week – ash clouds and British Airways unions permitting – to present and participate on a panel at the Global Reporting Initiative’s (GRI) annual conference. We’ve mentioned the GRI and sustainability reporting before on this blog. But it’s clear that 2010 is shaping up to be an interesting year for moving sustainability reporting forward. Read the rest of this entry » |
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