Core indicators launched at United Nations for integrated reporting by enterprises on sustainable development goals

New research, guidance and core indicators for integrated reporting by enterprises in how they are contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), is being released at the United Nations in Geneva today (24 October 2018), in partnership with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).

Agenda 2030 provides the context to accelerate global progress towards the integration of financial and non-financial reporting, IIRC Chief Executive Officer Richard Howitt said in his keynote address opening the 35th session of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting, (ISAR).

The core indicators and accompanying guidance are intended to be ‘opening benchmarks’ for business reporting of the SDGs, and will be promoted by UNCTAD with the support of the IIRC during the next year.

These indicators are in line with the IIRC’s philosophy that reporting of the SDGs must be integrated, and understood in the context of value-creation for the company, if it is genuinely going to become mainstream.

In his speech, Richard Howitt said it was important to provide assistance to business now to address the SDGs:

“The clock is ticking on achieving the SDGs. 

“Today, we have just 4,086 days to achieve the SDGs. This is only a little over the time it took Leo Tolstoy to write the 1,300 pages of ‘War and Peace.’

“For integrated business reporting of the SDGs, we cannot afford to spend the next twelve years writing another ‘War and Peace.’ 

“Instead, let’s write a better world.”

In his speech, Richard Howitt outlined the global progress of integrated reporting, the launch of the new ‘Momentum Phase’ in the IIRC’s strategy towards its global adoption and highlighted how the alignment of different reporting standards is key to genuine integrated reporting.

Read a full copy of Richard Howitt’s speech first published on the ISAR35 website here.

The UNCTAD guidance and core indicators can be found here.