Skip to content (Press enter)
Show Sections

At a glance

What do we mean by connecting IFRS Accounting and IFRS Sustainability:

  • purpose—comprehensive and coherent information for capital markets in general purpose financial reports prepared applying IFRS Standards.
  • products—compatible and complementary IFRS Accounting Standards and IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and the related digital taxonomies.
  • people—collaborative working between IASB and ISSB members and technical staff across the boards’ projects and other activities.

Shared purpose

Investors and other capital market participants need both financial statements and sustainability-related financial disclosures to make informed decisions. Our stakeholders, in particular investors, have consistently emphasised the importance of those reports providing connected information about a company.

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) are committed to developing IFRS Standards that enable companies to meet these needs. This commitment is embedded in the IFRS Foundation Constitution which establishes the focus on high-quality reporting to meet the needs of capital markets and requires the boards to work together towards their shared purpose.

Complementary products

To meet stakeholder demand for high-quality comprehensive information, we work to ensure that our products—particularly IFRS Accounting Standards and IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards and our digital taxonomies that facilitate digital reporting—are well-coordinated and result in complementary information about a company.

That means that we develop complementary requirements that use consistent language and terminology, compatible or shared concepts and avoid conflicts, gaps and unintended overlaps. While IFRS Accounting Standards and IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards can be applied separately from each other alongside other parties’ materials, our Standards work particularly well as a package. 

Collaborative working

To deliver coordinated complementary products, we have processes in place to ensure that while we work independently we do so in a connected manner. Collaboration between the IASB and ISSB and their technical staff is at the heart of everything we do and is firmly embedded in our culture.

Our connected working includes information and knowledge sharing between the boards and their technical staff, collaboration on projects and other activities, consultation with each other and coordinated stakeholder engagement.