The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Institute of Management Accountants to advance the management and disclosure of nonfinancial information in corporate reports.
The agreement, signed by SASB CEO Dr. Jean Rogers and IMA president and CEO Jeff Thomson outlines the basis for ongoing cooperation, collaboration and alignment between the two organizations. SASB and the IMA agreed to identify ways to align the thought leadership of both organizations to strengthen corporate reporting and disclosure and share each other’s work.
Nonfinancial issues such as sustainability are becoming a larger part of the role of accountants and financial professionals. “Management accountants have long been at the forefront of measuring and reporting relevant information, including nonfinancial data, that drives value,” Rogers said in a statement. “The partnership between SASB and IMA is an important step to help management accountants identify, measure and manage nonfinancial factors that affect financial performance.”
The IMA wants to help its members understand and prepare for this trend. “Sustainability disclosure is an increasingly important issue among investors and other stakeholders,” said Thomson. “Alongside financial data, information about a company's performance in the short-, medium- and long-term is increasingly important to describe and evaluate value creation capacity and sustainability. With this MoU, SASB and IMA hope to educate and train stakeholders in the area of sustainability reporting driven by value and relevance.”
