Pressures are mounting to increase the quantity and quality of financial and non-financial disclosure.

Emerging social and environmental risks signal a larger shift in the marketplace in how investors and other stakeholders weigh components of a company’s market value.

This shift in asset valuation, increasingly felt by company leadership, is already seen on various exchanges, finance terminals, independent sustainability reports and other reporting channels where non-financial information readily is available.

Integrated reporting represents an excellent opportunity to meet these increased demands for transparency of non-financial information and their calls for both quantitative and qualitative improvements in all reporting.

Creating unified integrated reporting standards

Leading companies seeking to capitalize on integrated reporting’s potential have begun to work on a globally recognized integrated reporting framework and integrated reporting standards with groups such as the International Integrated Reporting Council, The Prince’s Accounting for Sustainability Project, the Global Reporting Initiative, the American Institute of CPAs and the International Federation of Accountants.

Unified integrated reporting standards could allow companies to:

• Define emerging risks
• Communicate new value drivers
• Satisfy transparency demands from investors and other stakeholders
• Ensure consistency of reported information
• Present a complete picture of organization value

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