Purpose
The purpose of the database is to provide an online resource for organizations that are developing, or planning to develop, an integrated report. The database is being developed over time and will continue to be populated with new examples as practice develops.
Selection of Examples
The examples identified in this database have been suggested by the Integrated Reporting Framework technical staff, BlackSun (a founding partner of this project) and other supporters of integrated reporting (including accounting firms, companies, investors, and the academic community). At this stage, the Integrated Reporting Examples Database only includes examples from reports that are available in English, and these examples have been selected from publicly available reports, including those produced by participants in the various integrated reporting networks.
In the Leading Practices section, each example is accompanied by a short description highlighting the strengths of the organization’s report, focusing specifically on the alignment with the Content Elements, Fundamental Concepts and Guiding Principles included in the Integrated Reporting Framework. The examples selected and the accompanying descriptions have been reviewed by the Integrated Reporting Framework technical staff.
The Recognized Reports section features whole reports that have either been assessed by experts as leading practice or received an award for demonstrating leading practice in integrated reporting. These awards were given on the basis of criteria designed to rate the relative merits of various reports. The criteria were developed by the respective issuing organization and assessed by the Integrated Reporting Framework technical staff as aligned with integrated reporting.
The Integrated Reporting Framework section contains a list of companies that have either produced a report that references the Integrated Reporting Framework and/or the IIRC (the organisation that developed the Framework) or are influenced by the Framework through participation in integrated reporting networks. No quality assessment was involved in compiling this list of reporters.
Guiding Principles, Fundamental Concepts and Content Elements
The database has been structured around the Guiding Principles, Fundamental Concepts and Content Elements presented in the Integrated Reporting Framework. The project partners intend to update the database in accordance with revisions to the Guiding Principles, Fundamental Concepts and Content Elements, if any, as the Integrated Reporting Framework is further developed.
Guiding Principles
The Guiding Principles underpin the preparation of an Integrated Report, informing the content of the report and how information is presented. The Guiding Principles identified in the Integrated Reporting Framework are:
Strategic focus and future orientation
An integrated report should provide insight into the organization’s strategy, and how it relates to the organization’s ability to create value in the short, medium and long term and to its use of and effects on the capitals.
Connectivity of information
An integrated report should show a holistic picture of the combination, interrelatedness and dependencies between the factors that affect the organization’s ability to create value over time.
Stakeholder responsiveness
An integrated report should provide insight into the nature and quality of the organization’s relationships with its key stakeholders, including how and to what extent the organization understands, takes into account and responds to their legitimate needs and interests.
Materiality
An integrated report should disclose information about matters that substantively affect the organization’s ability to create value over the short, medium and long term.
Reliability and completeness
An integrated report should include all material matters, both positive and negative, in a balanced way and without material error.
Consistency and comparability
The information in an integrated report should be presented on a basis that is consistent over time and in a way that enables comparison with other organizations to the extent it is material to the organization’s own ability to create value over time.
Conciseness
An integrated report should be concise.
Fundamental Concepts
The Fundamental Concepts underpin and reinforce the requirements and guidance in the Integrated Reporting Framework. The Fundamental Concepts identified in the Framework are:
Value creation
An integrated report aims to explain how the organization interacts with the external environment and the capitals to create value over the short, medium and long term
The capitals
An integrated report aims to provide insight about the resources and relationships used and affected by an organization – these are collectively referred to as “the capitals”. The capitals are stocks of value that are increased, decreased or transformed through the activities and outputs of the organization. They are categorized in the Integrated Reporting Framework as financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship and natural capital
Content Elements
An Integrated Report includes sufficient information on each Content Element to answer the respective question posed for each below. The Content Elements are fundamentally linked to each other and are presented in the Integrated Report in a way that makes the interconnections between them apparent, rather than as isolated, standalone sections. The Content Elements identified in the Integrated Reporting Framework are:
Organizational overview and external environment
What does the organization do and what are the circumstances under which it operates?
Business model
What is the organization’s business model?
Risks and opportunities
What are the specific risks and opportunities that affect the organization’s ability to create value over the short, medium and long term, and how is the organization dealing with them?
Strategy and resource allocation
Where does the organization want to go and how does it intend to get there?
Governance
How does the organization’s governance structure support its ability to create value in the short, medium and long term?
Performance
To what extent has the organization achieved its strategic objectives for the period and what are its outcomes in terms of effects on the capitals?
Outlook
What challenges and uncertainties is the organization likely to encounter in pursuing its strategy, and what are the potential implications for its business model and future performance?
Basis of presentation
How does the organization determine what matters to include in the integrated report and how are such matters quantified or evaluated?