UNCTAD announced recipients of the ISAR Honours 2019 at the 36th meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting from 30 October to 1 November 2019 in Geneva.
Thirty-three nominees submitted their applications.
Results
The results of ISAR Honours 2019 were announced at the 36th meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting, from 30 October to 1 November 2019 in Geneva.
Honourees
SYNTAO, China
Material and Quantitative Indicators (MQI) Reporting Guidelines and Database
The MQI database (www.MQI.org.cn), known before as China Sustainability Report Resource Center (www.SustainabilityReport.cn), collects over 13,000 CSR/sustainability/ESG reports released in China by around 4,000 companies.
The materiality of these collected reports is regularly evaluated using MQI Guidelines. MQI Guidelines provides a set of well-chosen indicators to track corporate sustainability performance based on their CSR/sustainability/ESG reports.
These indicators are industry-specific and can be grouped into five areas including economy, environment, society, labor and product. Currently, MQI Guidelines covers 23 industries.
Relevant data and analyses of MQI database have been widely quoted in a number of researches and media reports.
SAMCODES Standards Committee, South Africa
South African Guideline for the Reporting of Environmental, Social and Governance Parameters within the Mining, Oil and Gas Industries (SAMESG Guideline)
SAMESG Guideline developed as the ESG technical standard to inform the extractive industries reporting codes, notably, the SAMREC, SAMVAL and SAMOG.
The SAMESG provides a standardised, systematic and orderly framework for public reporting of ESG parameters in the extractive industries (inclusive of solid minerals, oil and gas projects) which influence the reasonable and realistic prospects for eventual economic extraction (RPEEE).
Currently applicable to extractives companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), SAMESG has been compiled in a manner which allows adoption across industries and geographies.
The intention of the SAMESG is to improve the accuracy of the financial valuation of assets through requiring the integration of material ESG aspects in public reports and project economic assessments. This goes beyond the scope of current sustainability reporting frameworks.
German Council for Sustainable Development, Germany
Deutscher Nachhaltigkeitskodex (German Sustainability Code) (DNK)
The Sustainability Code (DNK) provides a framework for reporting on non-financial performance that organisations and companies of all sizes and legal forms can use.
To comply with the Code, users submit their sustainability-related information to the central Code database.
This is called the “declaration of conformity” with the 20 Code criteria and the additional non-financial performance indicators taken from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) or the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS).
The Code team checks the declarations for formal completeness, in line with the “comply-or-explain” requirements, and the declarations are published via the Code database.
The use of the database as well as all services regarding the Sustainability Code (e.g. support by the Code team, the Code logo) are free of charge.
Securities and Exchange Commission, the Philippines
Sustainability Reporting Guidelines for Publicly Listed Corporations (PLCs) in the Philippines
The Philippines’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was released last February 2019 via Memorandum Circular No. 4, Series of 2019 the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines for Publicly Listed Corporations (PLCs).
The Circular required PLCs to attach to their Annual Report starting 2020 a reporting template following the provided Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.
Through this initiative, SEC enabled the increase in the number, quality, and consistency of sustainability reports in the country, while ensuring that these reports are aligned with and encourage the attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and national policies and programs.
FSR-Danish Auditors, Denmark
ESG Key Performance Indicators in the Annual Report
The publication ‘ESG Key Performance Indicators in the Annual Report’ targets large Danish companies to encourage company management to include standardized environmental, social and governance (ESG) key performance indicators (KPIs) in a table in the annual report alongside the financial figures table.
The publication includes definitions of 15 suggested KPIs to help the companies accounting departments adopt the KPIs.
The Danish Finance Society/CFA Society Denmark, FSR – Danish Auditors and Nasdaq Copenhagen develops this publication to help professionalize and address the markets call for better quality and standardized ESG information in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Switzerland
Aligning Enterprise Risk Management with ESG-Related Risks
If the world is to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals resilient organizations will need to understand and act upon their impacts and dependencies as well as opportunities related to nature and society.
Similarly, to achieve the SDG’s businesses and others will need to attract finance.
To manage risks, seize opportunities and attract finance requires organizations to be risk intelligent. This initiative seeks to help entities become risk intelligent.
Although only nine months into the implementation, excellent results are emerging of both uptake by businesses and improved risk disclosure.
Impact Institute, The Netherlands
Framework for Impact Statements
The Impact Statement standard allows businesses, investors and governments to report and steer on impact.
An Impact Statement is composed of multiple statements in which an organization explains in a quantified manner which impacts they have created in the reporting period.
At the core of the Impact Statement there is an Integrated Profit and Loss (IP&L) account, which is supplemented by focused statements, such as the SDG Contribution Statement.
Together these statements provide a quantified overview of value creation for all relevant stakeholders measured on the six capitals of IIRC: Financial, Manufactured, Intellectual, Human, Social and Natural Capital.
