International Integrated Reporting Framework

Step 1 – Understand the Framework Download the International Integrated Reporting Framework (available free at integratedreporting.org) and review its guiding principles and content elements. Familiarize yourself with the six capitals model and the concept of integrated thinking.

Step 2 – Assess Your Current Reporting Conduct a gap analysis comparing your organization's existing annual or sustainability reports against the IR Framework's seven guiding principles (strategic focus, connectivity, stakeholder relationships, materiality, conciseness, reliability, and comparability).

Step 3 – Build Your Reporting Team Assemble a cross-functional team including finance, sustainability, strategy, and communications. Designate an IR champion — typically the CFO, Head of Sustainability, or Corporate Secretary — to lead the process.

Step 4 – Map Your Value Creation Story Identify your organization's business model, the six capitals it relies on and affects, and the material matters that influence your ability to create value over the short, medium, and long term.

Step 5 – Draft Your Integrated Report Prepare a report that addresses all eight content elements: organizational overview, governance, business model, risks and opportunities, strategy, performance, outlook, and basis of preparation.

Step 6 – Seek External Assurance (Optional) Consider commissioning a third-party assurance provider (e.g., a Big Four firm) to validate your integrated report's alignment with the framework, enhancing credibility with investors and stakeholders.

Step 7 – Publish and Submit to the Examples Database Publish your integrated report and optionally submit it to the IIRC/IFRS Foundation's examples database to benchmark against global peers and gain visibility.

Step 8 – Iterate Annually Refine your integrated report each year, incorporating framework updates from the IFRS Foundation and feedback from stakeholders.

The IR Framework does not involve a formal pass/fail assessment; instead, organizations self-apply the framework's guiding principles and content elements to their corporate reporting. Alignment is evaluated against two core pillars.

Seven Guiding Principles: Strategic focus and future orientation (does the report explain how strategy relates to value creation?); Connectivity of information (are financial and non-financial data meaningfully linked?); Stakeholder relationships (are key stakeholder relationships and their needs addressed?); Materiality (does the report focus on matters that substantively affect value creation?); Conciseness (is the report focused and free of unnecessary detail?); Reliability and completeness (is information balanced and free from material error?); Consistency and comparability (is information presented consistently over time and comparable across organizations?).

Eight Content Elements: Organizational overview and external environment; Governance; Business model; Risks and opportunities; Strategy and resource allocation; Performance; Outlook; Basis of preparation and presentation. These elements are not treated as a checklist but as interconnected components that together tell a coherent value creation story.

The Six Capitals: The framework encourages organizations to account for their use of and impact on six forms of capital — financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural capital — providing a holistic view of value creation and erosion across all dimensions of the business.

The International Integrated Reporting Framework occupies a unique position in the corporate reporting landscape as the primary global framework for combining financial and non-financial information into a single, coherent narrative. Since its launch in 2013, it has been adopted by thousands of organizations across more than 70 countries, with particularly strong uptake in South Africa — where the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) has encouraged integrated reporting for listed companies since 2010 — as well as Japan, Brazil, and parts of Europe. The framework is widely regarded as the intellectual foundation for "integrated thinking" in corporate governance.

Following the consolidation of the IIRC and the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF) into the IFRS Foundation in 2022, the IR Framework gained significant institutional backing. The IFRS Foundation now oversees both the IR Framework and the ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board), positioning integrated reporting as a complement to the emerging IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (IFRS S1 and S2). This consolidation has strengthened the framework's long-term relevance but has also introduced some uncertainty about its standalone future as ISSB standards gain regulatory traction.

The framework faces competition from more prescriptive disclosure regimes, including GRI Standards, SASB Standards, and the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). However, IR's principles-based, narrative-focused approach continues to appeal to organizations that want flexibility in how they communicate value creation. Demand for IR expertise is growing alongside broader ESG reporting mandates, and the framework is increasingly used in conjunction with — rather than as a replacement for — other standards. Its free availability and alignment with ISSB standards make it a durable reference point for corporate reporting teams globally.

The International Integrated Reporting Framework was developed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), a global coalition of regulators, investors, companies, standard setters, accounting professionals, and NGOs. The IIRC was established in 2010, building on earlier work by the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa, whose King III Report (2009) first recommended integrated reporting for JSE-listed companies. A prototype framework was released in 2011, followed by a consultation draft in 2013, and the first formal version of the International Integrated Reporting Framework was published in December 2013. This marked a landmark moment in corporate reporting, providing the first globally applicable framework for combining financial and non-financial information.

In 2021, the IIRC merged with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) to form the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF). Shortly thereafter, in August 2022, the VRF was consolidated into the IFRS Foundation, bringing the IR Framework under the stewardship of one of the world's most authoritative accounting governance bodies. The framework was updated in January 2021 to reflect evolving market practices, and the IFRS Foundation has continued to maintain it as a foundational reference for integrated thinking alongside the newly established ISSB sustainability disclosure standards.