Article Highlights

• IFRS Foundation sets investor-focused sustainability disclosures for capital markets.

• Enhance connection between Financial and sustainability information

• Build robust Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) Risk disclosure

• Discipline in sustainability report processes and controls to build trust

• Use internationally recognized standards for reporting sustainability information.

Introduction

Institutional Investors across the globe are focused on obtaining more rigorous and disciplined reporting on nonfinancial performance. Many investors consider nonfinancial performance as critical to making investment decisions on a company.

There is a strong relationship between financial performance and sustainability performance. As such, Investors need reliable, relevant and comparable information on both financial and sustainable performances. Sustainability issues contribute to enterprise value creation and capital market efficiencies.

Economics is the study of how society efficiently allocates resources. Sustainability is the study of how individuals can meet their current needs without sacrificing the needs of individuals in the future. The capital markets are designed to “price” the future economic health. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), there will be adverse consequences if the corporate sector does not transition to net zero emissions by 2050. This is why investors want better climate-related financial disclosure (TCFD). Note that both public policy and investors play an important role towards future economic health.

The world needs a global baseline for sustainability performance reporting

Suggested Actions

Tasks to help you prepare

IDENTIFY TASKS TO ESTABLISH DISCLOSURE

Establish the list of disclosures that you plan to disclosure. It is important to perform a stakeholder analysis to determine the most relevant disclosures that fit with your corporate strategy.

MONITOR AND MEASURE

Once you have the disclosure items established, it can be easy to assume that you are completed implementation of the project. Evaluation is an important phase of the process that should not be overlooked. Review your initial needs as a guide to evaluate the success of the list of disclosures. Use our Surveys and Forms tools to create a custom survey for your stakeholders. Ask them how they like the lists of disclosures that you will report, what their struggles are, whether they have any suggestions for improvement.

Suggested Actions

Tasks to help you prepare

Investors across the world are looking for robust disclosure on sustainability information and financial information to make better investment decisions. Adoption of internationally recognized standards provide your organization with a better position to attract investors.