ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the development of the International Integrated Reporting Council’s (IIRC) concept of integrated reporting over the nine years since the organization’s foundation. It demonstrates that, over this period, the IIRC’s understanding of the objective of integrated reporting underwent a radical transformation – from the reporting of sustainability to the reporting of value for investors. The chapter analyses the reasons for this transformation and perceives two principal motives: that the IIRC required its proposals on integrated reporting to be accepted, and that the IIRC had been captured by the accountancy profession and businesses. The chapter concludes that the substitution of investor value for sustainability may be in the interest of the individual business firm, but it constitutes a disaster for the planet.
