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April 22nd, 2011 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
I thought it was about time to catch up on what’s happening with Integrated Reporting (IR) so it was good to see the initiative now has its own website and roadmap. The Federation of European Accountants has already published a factsheet on IR and the ACCA’s Accountancy Futures provides a useful overview of IR – I particularly liked the fact that the word ‘holistic’ is creeping in and the perspective of the ACCA’s Rachel Jackson. But if you want a good place to start catching up on IR, other than the website, try this free PDF download from HBS: The Landscape of Integrated Reporting.
Tags: IR
Posted in Analytics, Communication, Sustainability, Transparency | No Comments »
March 22nd, 2011 by Philip Winterburn - CIO
I’ve never experienced a conference or convention quite like SXSW. Austin’s high-energy vibe is amplified by the influx of thousands of software developers, film makers, musicians, and every kind of artist.
We cut our way through bustling crowds outside the Hilton to enter the convention center, where we encountered a teaming mass of young innovators. The energy was palpable. Everywhere there were circles of gathered minds. Throughout the hallways they sat cross-legged on the floor, laptops open, all working together to churn out new ideas—and almost all using Macs of all things!
Our presentation was Corporate Sustainability Reporting and Transparency: New Success Standards. On our panel were Erin Meezan, VP Sustainability at Interface Group; Greg Janecek, SVP Sales/Mktg at Reddwerks; and Anthony Holm, Principal at The Patriot Group. Facilitating was Jay Whitehead, formerly of Corporate Responsibility Magazine.
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Tags: South by Southwest, SXSW
Posted in Sustainability, XBRL | No Comments »
March 15th, 2011 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
The news that B Corp is revving up its sustainability rating system provides another perfect use case for a new XBRL taxonomy to help with sustainability reporting. As GreenBiz reports:
“This is B Lab’s effort to launch a rating system that focuses not on the financial performance of companies and funds, but instead, their social and environmental impact,” Houlahan said, “creating a global, comparable system that allows investors and institutions to unlock a huge amount of capital to flow into impact investing.”
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Tags: B Corp, Sustainability
Posted in Analytics, Sustainability, XBRL | 2 Comments »
March 3rd, 2011 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
If you are following the debate about so-called ‘integrated’ reporting, you might want to take a look at the Framework for Integrated Reporting discussion paper that was recently published by the Integrated Reporting Committee (IRC) of South Africa. As the paper points out:
…the overarching objective of integrated reporting is to enable stakeholders to assess the ability of an organisation to create and sustain value over the short-, medium- and long-term.
The paper also does a great job of identifying 8 key topics that an integrated report should address, which include looking forward as well as back and the importance of materiality and assurance. Well worth a look if you interested in sustainability reporting or in thinking about the future of ‘external’ reporting software generally.
Posted in Communication, Sustainability | No Comments »
February 10th, 2011 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
In the MITSloan Management Review report – Sustainability: The Embracers Sieze Advantage - the authors claim that:
…the new era of accountability means measurement and reporting of companies’ environmental and social impact will take on greater prominence.
So in the sustainability reporting ‘E’ Quadrant where exactly is your business? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Sustainability | No Comments »
February 1st, 2011 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
I’m glad to see the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is starting to invest in evangelizing its sustainability reporting framework in the USA with their Focal Point USA initiative. Apparently on Jan. 31 in New York (well-known home of sustainability reporting):
‘Movers, shakers and report makers’ will gather at the New York Stock Exchange for a breakfast event and panel discussion to answer the question “Why is America letting the world lead in sustainability reporting?”
A question that will no doubt puzzle organizations such as Patagonia, Timberland, B Corporations and many others in the USA who are innovating in the area of sustainability reporting without the use of prescriptive frameworks.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, check out this introductory white paper I wrote back in mid-2010: Sustainability Reporting: Definition, Directions and Challenges.
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Tags: GRI
Posted in Sustainability, Taxonomies, Transparency | 1 Comment »
January 11th, 2011 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
The U.K’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) appears to have survived the bonfire of the quangos (US translation: withdrawal of federal funding) and has even released a new report of its own. Yet the flames still beckon because from an innovation perspective, Effective Company Stewardship: Enhancing Corporate Reporting and Audit could be considered a little like Macbeth’s rather jaundiced view of life - full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
But maybe that’s too harsh. For buried in the report is the intriguing proposal of a ‘financial reporting lab’ where amidst the bubbling of loosely connected financial and non-financial crucibles some hunchback bookkeeper with bulging eyes can be glimpsed reaching into a giant cauldron and lifting out a steaming new Annual Reporting XBRL taxonomy with the immortal words: “Master…It lives!” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Communication, Sustainability, XBRL | No Comments »
January 4th, 2011 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
BASDA’s Green XML is an interesting initiative from the UK-based Business Application Software Developers Association that claims to represent some 200 software vendors. BASDA has been promoting its e-business XML schema for a decade or so to facilitate the exchange of B2B transactions such as purchase orders and invoices between accounting/ERP applications. They now propose to extend their XML schema to include ‘green’ data, which is not a bad idea. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: BASDA
Posted in Sustainability, XBRL | No Comments »
December 7th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Harvard Business School has just published what must be considered the ‘bible’ of so-called Integrated Reporting (i.e. reports that combine financial and non-financial data) entitled The Landscape of Integrated Reporting: Reflections and Next Steps. Among over 300 pages of cracking content (US translation: awesome content), the ebook has a section on leveraging technology and a couple of articles that discuss the role of XBRL in facilitating the journey towards integrated reporting. So here I’d like to discuss the concept of “relational tagging” for a moment. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Sustainability, XBRL | 3 Comments »
November 30th, 2010 by Stewart McKie - Executive Advisor
Here in the UK, all central government bodies that produce Annual Reports and Accounts in accordance with HM Treasury’s Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) are required to include a section in their Annual Report covering their performance on sustainability from 2011-2012. This year, 2010-2011, is termed the ‘dry-run’ year - a bit like when the S.E.C. trialled XBRL with its voluntary filing program.
The sustainability reporting required is relatively simple but we are warned that ‘the guidance will be updated annually‘ – Government code for expect more complex compliance to come. Note that there is no mention of XBRL so far but the guidance contains lots of excellent information on what a sustainability report could look like and how it is constructed. How soon before the US follows?
Tags: UK
Posted in Communication, Sustainability | 1 Comment »
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