Sustainability reporting guide by ACCA

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) published ‘Sustainability reporting – The guide to preparation’ on November 2023. It is a comprehensive and practical resource designed for organisations of all types and sizes to navigate the evolving landscape of sustainability reporting. With particular emphasis on the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB Standards), the guide introduces an eight-stage reporting cycle that covers everything from allocating responsibilities to verifying reported information. These and other related documents are primarily targeted at professional accountants, whose role is crucial in this process. It underscores the importance of identifying material sustainability-related risks and opportunities that can impact an organisation's long-term value.

Available documents

The documents are available via ACCA’s Sustainability Hub, here.

• Sustainability reporting – the guide to preparation

• Sustainability reporting – the guide to preparation in brief

• Appendix A IFRS S1 sample worksheet

• Appendix B IFRS S2 sample worksheet

Some other related documents are:

• Sustainability reporting – SME guide

• Sustainability reporting – Risk and materiality

• Principles of good corporate reporting

• Companies’ readiness to adopt IFRS S2 Climate-related disclosures

• Business models of the future - Systems, convergence and characteristics

Learn more with AI

If using AI chat to learn more, some useful prompts are:

• Tell me about ACCA’s Sustainability reporting – The guide to preparation;

• How does it see materiality and risk management?;

• How does it align with ISSB s1 and s2 and TCFD?;

• What is the role of data according to ACCA?;

• How does this guide help to avoid reporting burdens?;

• How can an accountant and sustainability reporting expert work together?

8 sustainability reporting stages

The document introduces eight reporting stages, which are meant to be continuous and repeated. For small and medium-sized companies, the stages remain the same but activities might differ.

1. Allocating responsibility for sustainability reporting - RACI: Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed;

2. Establishing the reporting landscape - understand the organisation and its operational environment;

3. Determining the material sustainability-related information to be reported - sustainability-related risks and opportunities (SRROs);

4. Determining the data requirements - scope and parameters;

5. Collecting the data - methodology and sources;

6. Reporting on the collected data – communicate results;

7. Implementing reporting: technology as an enabler and people as enablers – implementation plan;

8. Verifying what is reported, and continual improvement – assurance and continuous improvement.

3 step-approach to identify and report material information

This is in the heart of the document and the topic has its own document as well. The steps are:

1. Identify the organisation’s SRROs – new objectives, scenario analysis and life-cycle assessment;

2. Assess whether any SRROs could reasonably be expected to affect the organisation’s prospects – dependency and scope of the value chain;

3. Determine material information about the SRROs that could reasonably be expected to affect the organisation’s prospects, for reporting externally – magnitude and likelihood, future events, quantitative and qualitative factors, relevancy, and controls.

Implementing reporting: plan, technology and people as enablers

The document highlights the importance of the people and the use of technology while developing reporting practices.

1. Create a formal implementation plan;

2. Use technology as an enabler - Set the strategy, Establish governance, and Assess the credibility;

3. Work with people as enablers - Make the case, Create awareness, Review the organisation design, Engage and manage providers and users of sustainability-related information, and Manage talent.

Capabilities most relevant to sustainability

The guide provides also key capabilities for the accountant to excel in sustainability reporting. Appendix C provides more debt analysis in seven areas below:

1. Sustainability - Applying integrative thinking and action to create, protect and communicate long-term value for the organisation, environment and society;

2. Expertise - The functional responsibilities of your role;

3. Insight - Thinking and operating at an individual level in your organisational context;

4. Ethics - Acting by fundamental principles of professional and personal ethical behaviour;

5. Drive -Your attitude and motivation;

6. Collaboration - Interacting with others; and

7. Digital - Proficiently and ethically using existing and emerging data technologies, capabilities, practices and strategies.

Themes and Principles of good corporate reporting

The principles have also their own document, but below are them shortly grouped under themes.

1. Connectivity and coherence– a people- and process-driven exercise - 1. Embed connectivity and coherence;

2. Standards and frameworks– selection, adoption and implementation - 2. Apply a ‘building blocks’ approach, building on a global baseline, 3. Be principles-based and apply proportionality, and 4. Maximise comparability, with interoperability as a catalyst;

3. Data and information– for whom, and to what extent - 5. Understand and meet stakeholders’ information needs, 6. Take a holistic approach to corporate reporting, and 7. Enable and support good governance practices,

4. Communication– telling the organisation’s story - 8. Ease access and avoid disclosure overload.