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INTEREST Project and the Scope for SME Integrated Reporting
Integrated Reporting is a new form of entity reporting which seeks to show the value created in organisations over a period in all of the capitals utilised in that entity.
This means not just financial reporting but reporting on the other capitals of human, intellectual, natural, social and manufactured. It seeks to use non-financial as well as financial measures.
There is a requirement for large businesses to provide an Integrated Report and there are undoubted benefits for SMEs to do the same. Consumers increasingly want to know that businesses are doing good concerning sustainability issues and an Integrated Report seeks to meet that need and allows the business to think anew about what it does and how it goes about doing that more sustainably. This will enhance SMEs value creation due to Integrated Reporting and Sustainability being contemporary and innovative pillars for sustainable businesses. SMEs will enhance the value created through the capitals utilised and the use of non-financial as well as financial measures in that entity. T
his means reporting as a small business on applicable capitals financial and other capitals human, intellectual, natural, social, and manufactured. Actively embed Integrated Reporting and Sustainability in a small business through the exchanged knowledge, stakeholder engagement, collaboration, and innovation.
Erasmus+ project called INTEREST can help SMEs of any size to look at Integrated Reporting and how this might be used by SME entities. Information about the outputs and relevance to the SMEs be found here.
- Intellectual Output 1 - Integrated Reporting for SMEs: A Framework for Action. The “framework for action” developed as part of the INTEREST project is meant as an introduction to Integrated Reporting (<IR>) for SMEs. It is fully compliant with the “International <IR> Framework” recently updated by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC).
- Intellectual Output 2 - IR Guide for SMEs - development plan. Based on the Integrated Reporting (<IR>) Framework, a practical handbook on how to measure and communicate SME performance from an integrated perspective will be developed.
- Intellectual Output 3 - Curriculum for SMEs - development plan. To help understand the concepts and use the tools featured in the Guide, the consortium will test and make available a set of learning units on how to measure and communicate value creation in the specific context of SMEs.
Various SMEs participated in the piloting of e-learning materials for the project. One of these SMEs was Eartha Sustainable Underwear Ltd with Director Emily Turner. The benefit for any small business taking part and using the project output material activity would be to have a better understanding of the 6 capitals and to use these to rethink sustainable business practices.
Dr Albana Rasha
Albana currently works as a senior lecturer in accounting and finance at Leeds Beckett University. After years of working in Accounting and Finance management roles in industry, she always felt the most satisfying part of her job was helping others to develop their careers and so entered the world of teaching, academia, consultancy and research to further this ambition.
Albana is a member of The Centre for Governance, Leadership and Global Responsibility where her research interests include Governance, Sustainability, Integrated Thinking and Reporting. She is secretary of an Integrated Reporting Group at Leeds Beckett University made up of practitioners and academics, who meet quarterly to promote and develop Integrated Thinking and Reporting.
