By Sheralee Morland, Convenor of the IRC of SA’s IR Practitioners Forum and the CEO of
Joshero (Pty) Ltd.
A single sustainability report or separate reports for different sustainability topics? How do you layer disclosures from various sustainability standards, and what is the purpose of an online data book? These questions were posed at the IR Practitioners Forum webinar held in April 2026. The IR Practitioners Forum is exclusive to IRC of SA members involved in integrated reporting and sustainability reporting advisory services.
Here are some key points made by our five panellists during the very useful and practical discussion:
Desiree Jones – Managing Director, Alchemy Creative Studios
- The reporting landscape is rapidly evolving with varying speeds across jurisdictions creating complexity for organisations. That said, each organisation’s reporting journey is unique, shaped by its stakeholders, risks and opportunities.
- Early client conversations should focus on understanding the organisation’s purpose for reporting and the audience’s decision-making needs, rather than just compliance.
- Emphasise the value of the integrated report as a concise, holistic narrative that connects governance, strategy, risks and opportunities without overloading information.
- The three recent Information Papers from the IRC offer practical guidance for building an effective corporate reporting suite. The Papers serve as useful references for practitioners managing the complexity of sustainability and integrated reporting:
- A Global Comprehensive Reporting System: Explains different reporting approaches in structuring a corporate reporting suite that is coherent, and how the various reports can fit together.
- Integrated Reporting and Using a Layering Approach to Sustainability Reporting: Explores how sustainability disclosures arising from multiple standards can be layered with the integrated report positioned as the overall report.
- Achieving a Concise Integrated Report: Focuses on how to keep the integrated report concise while maintaining complete and decision-useful content.
- Encourage clients to develop a clear plan and a reporting infrastructure focusing on meaningful, comparable and decision-useful information. Highlight the importance of aligning reporting content with stakeholder expectations, including the growing role of AI in accessing information.
Matthew Allan – Head of Specialist Services, GreymatterFinch
- Across jurisdictions, regulators and standard setters are raising expectations around data completeness, consistency and auditability. This has elevated the importance of getting data lineage right – from source systems through calculations to final disclosures – so that organisations can demonstrate transparency and control.
- At the same time, demand for sustainability data is no longer limited to regulators: Investors, lenders, customers and other external stakeholders increasingly expect decisionuseful, assured information.
- Organisations need to measure and report at granular levels, including product-level impacts and societal effects, to meet new standards and stakeholder expectations.
- Reporting now requires robust data collection and aggregation capabilities integrated into management systems, moving from periodic to more frequent disclosures. Organisations need to build ‘muscle’ for sustainability reporting through readiness, data governance and assurance processes.
- The focus should be less on the current regulatory uncertainty and more on developing capabilities that will support future expanded reporting requirements. Reporting must be authentic, transparent and demonstrate real impacts rather than superficial positive claims.
- As sustainability reporting converges with financial reporting in terms of rigour, the credibility of disclosures is increasingly determined by the strength of underlying data governance and the ability to provide assurance over reported metrics.
Charmane Russell – Director, R&A Strategic Communications
- Our north star as to whether an organisation should have a single sectioned report or multiple separate reports depends on the organisation’s complexity, its regulatory environment and stakeholder needs. The critical requirement is that the integrated report retains its purpose as a concise overview of strategy, governance, performance and prospects, and does not become a repository for detailed disclosures.
- Materiality decisions for the integrated report should be governance led, focusing on value creation, preservation or erosion over time with strong board oversight and filtering to avoid information overload.
- The integrated report should include high-level material sustainability disclosures where relevant to the value process, for instance, in strategy and resource allocation, governance and oversight, risks and opportunities, business model resilience, performance and outlook.
- The detailed sustainability disclosures (e.g. the full GRI or ISSB data tables, methodologies and granular metrics) are best suited to supplementary sustainability reports, data books or online disclosures, with clear cross-referencing from the integrated report.
- Don’t use the integrated report as a ‘catch‑all’ for sustainability disclosures, as this undermines conciseness and obscures the strategic narrative.
- The integrated report acts as the ‘head of the octopus’, with other reports or data layers as the ‘arms’ and this requires clear connectivity and overall coherence.
Barry Hearne – Sustainability Specialist, Strategic Storytelling
- The main challenge is balancing compliance-driven framework reporting with telling an authentic, decision-useful story about the business.
- The most important considerations in advising on format and layering are: Authenticity and client readiness to report against identified frameworks; Stakeholderspecific information needs; Materiality as the organising principle; Strong hierarchy and connectivity; Alignment across frameworks and regulations; Digital accessibility and governance integrity.
- Consistency in definitions, metrics and boundaries across layers is essential to avoid silos and repetition among the various reports.
- Digital delivery and online data hosting enables users to drill down from summaries to detailed disclosures efficiently.
- The IFRS S1 and S2 Standards will push organisations to integrate sustainability-related financial risks (across physical and transition risks and opportunities, financing, stranded assets, etc.) into financial and risk management frameworks, moving from broad narratives on say climate to granular, decision-useful risk information. Sustainability risk analysis should be elevated to the same rigour as financial risk to inform investment and operational decisions.
Tina Playne – Sustainability Advisory and Reporting, Trialogue
- Focusing on data books, they can improve integrated reporting quality by creating discipline, traceability and assurance around data, allowing the narrative to focus on strategy and performance storytelling. They help separate detailed data from the report, reducing clutter, repetition, and debates over numbers during report drafting.
- Data books become essential when reporting to multiple audiences with varying standards and stakeholder needs, supporting governance and board oversight.
- Effective data books are designed around material matters and value drivers, not just checklist compliance, with clear data hierarchies and governance controls.
- Embedding the data book into executive and board reporting cycles operationalises sustainability data and enhances confidence in disclosures.
- Mature reporting organisations are moving toward real-time or ongoing data updates, thereby improving responsiveness to stakeholders like investors and raters.
- Avoid treating all data points equally; prioritise strategic, operational and leading indicators to aid understanding and decision-making.
The panel discussion underscored the evolving complexity of sustainability reporting and the need for organisations to balance compliance with meaningful, strategic communication. Key themes included the importance of clear purpose and materiality, having a layered and connected reporting suite, robust data governance, the usefulness of data books, and the integration of sustainability risks into strategic, financial and operational decision-making. The integrated report remains central as the concise narrative ‘head’ supported by detailed disclosures in supplementary reports and data layers that fit together coherently.
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