IIRC's 10th anniversary: Embedding progress, completing the mission and securing our legacy

In its tenth year, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) remains the global coalition committed to bringing about an evolution in corporate reporting.  Its Framework is adopted today by some 2,000 organisations in over 70 markets, giving rise to vital national integrated reporting networks that are engaging with businesses, regulators and other market participants to embed integrated thinking and reporting within mainstream practice, fulfilling our mission.

We are focused, as we enter our second decade, on securing that legacy to build a new global corporate reporting consensus around a comprehensive structure and more aligned system.

Integrated reporting is based on a number of important principles – multi-capital decision-making, the connectivity of information reflected in integrated thinking and board leadership in providing insight into business models that respond to the legitimate needs and expectations of stakeholders.  In a world reshaped by a global pandemic and still facing the existential threat of climate change, this agenda has never been more relevant.

These integrated reporting concepts must become the platform for a new global system for corporate reporting – linked to a comprehensive set of standards, interconnected oversight and assurance that enables increased trust and confidence.

In 2010 – when we were founded – we had to make these arguments from first principle, create the framework, build adoption, develop the business case and secure the evidence base.  That first part of our strategy has been accomplished and in 2020 we are revising our <IR> Framework and seeking support from our coalition to complete our mission and secure this legacy.

Today’s challenge seeks to address how we embed that integrated thinking and reporting practice into the mainstream.  This means intensifying our collaboration with others, demonstrating our alignment not only within the sustainability world but our link to the financial reporting standard setters and those developing new systems of assurance.

As we celebrate our first ten years, we must also prepare for the next ten – a decade in which we seek to complete our mission.  The IIRC is seeking new ways to intensify the adoption of integrated thinking and reporting, and ensure our principles form the basis of a new global system reflected in regulation, market practice and assurance.

Our power to convene in this context has never been more important.  The unbreakable link between the different communities that believe in a future of reporting that is multi-capital, interconnected, respectful of all resources and stakeholders, is one that the IIRC takes extremely seriously – it is the foundation of our authority.

Our current strategic discussions seek to strengthen the place of integrated thinking and reporting in the corporate reporting landscape, aligning our goals with others and achieving the long-promised comprehensive corporate reporting system that we know will contribute powerfully to the twin goals of financial stability and sustainable development.

In making this commitment we acknowledge the important work of the many national networks that translate these global aspirations into meaningful change market-by-market, securing the regulatory signposting and increasing the quality of implementation of integrated thinking and reporting.

The role of the integrated reporting networks has never been more important as we seek to complete our mission and secure the legacy that has been hard won over the first decade of the IIRC’s existence.