Date issued: 3 June 2010
CPA Australia CEO Alex Malley FCPA, presented an honorary membership of CPA Australia to Professor Mervyn King SC, chairman, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), at the Global Conference on Sustainability and Transparency in Amsterdam.
Alex Malley, a speaker during a plenary session at the conference, made the presentation in recognition of Professor King's contribution to the development of corporate governance practices and for exemplifying international leadership towards the goals of integrated reporting and the transformation of corporate behaviour.
Two groundbreaking propositions were made at the conference and are now in the public domain for comment. The first is that all large corporates and small-to-medium enterprises should report their environmental, social and governance material issues on an if not / why not basis by 2015.
The second is that an integrated reporting framework will be created so that financial and non-financial reporting can be merged into this single framework by 2020.
These are significant leaps in terms of reporting, as they bring together the work being undertaken by accounting for sustainability and the GRI, and position the accounting profession as the key driver of these reforms.
Members can join a discussion on these issues through CPA Australia’s Environmental, social and governance online community of interest.
CPA Australia brought both Professor King and Ernst Ligteringen, chief executive, GRI, to Australia as guest speakers at CPA Congress in 2008. CPA Australia has since become an organisational stakeholder in the GRI, has supported the establishment of its Asia – Pacific hub, and uses the GRI's G3 guidelines for compiling our sustainability report.
CPA Australia also became the first professional accounting body in the world to produce a sustainability report that had been independently assured and had passed a GRI check. Now, with the publication of our second report, CPA Australia is still the only such accounting body to do so.
From left to right: CPA Australia’s CEO Alex Malley presenting the honorary membership to Professor Mervyn King SC, chairman, Global Reporting Initiative.