Mervyn King, chair emeritus of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), has launched the ESG Exchange to help prepares with rising mandatory sustainability disclosures requirements globally.
The Exchange is an initiative of the Good Governance Academy, set up as a non-profit organization registered in South Africa. It offers a 5 Module Implementation Programme which runs over three years. The programme can be bought as a whole and modules can also be purchased individually.
There is a lot of confusion from preparers on how to comply with new requirements such as the EU's ESRS, the IFRS Foundation sustainability standards and the US SEC's climate disclosures proposals, King said in a video announcing the launch. Furthermore, preparers don't know what information to include when reporting.
The ESG Exchange aims to cut through that uncertainty and provide what it refers to as "the How-To Playbook for sustainability reporting".
King, sometimes referred to as the 'godfather of corporate reporting', was famously hailed by South Africa president Nelson Mandela as his 'favorite judge'. In the first half of the 1990s, Mandela tasked King with drafting the corporate guidelines for the newly democratic South Africa. The result was the King Report on Corporate Governance, the fourth version of which was published in 2016. Since then King has been involved in most sustainability reporting disclosures initiative globally.