Learning from the Best: New Challenges and Trends in IR Reporters’ Disclosure and the Role of SDGs

A worldwide debate on the effectiveness of business reporting information has engaged organizations, policy makers, regulators, and members of the capital market. The documents through which organizations disclose their annual performance are being questioned and criticized, as they appear inadequate for responding to stakeholder needs. In 2013, the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) launched a project with the aim of redesigning corporate reporting processes and outputs, introducing integrated reporting (IR). At the center of IR are the six capitals defined by the IIRC representing the basis for an innovative form of evaluating and presenting performance. New topics on the global sustainable development agenda are growing in importance, requiring companies to enrich their disclosure and connect business to environment. In this study, we examined how a group of leaders in IR, 134 European companies from the IIRC IR reporters list, are currently disclosing IR capital and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), developing three evaluation scores: Capital Disclosure Index, SDG Disclosure Index, and SDG Compliance Index.