Mandatory ESG reporting and XBRL taxonomies combination: ESG ratings and income statement, a sustainable value-added disclosure

Alessio Faccia*, Francesco Manni, Fabian Capitanio

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)
378 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Corporate financial statements address multiple stakeholders’ needs. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs), among others, allow two different classifications, “by function of expense” and “by nature of expense”, for the statement of profit and loss and other comprehensive income for the period (from now on, also identified in short as “Income Statement”, or “IS”). XBRL standards ensure compliance and consistency in financial statements’ drafting and filing. XBRL taxonomies reflect the Income Statement IFRS disclosure requirement in the {310000} and {320000} codifications, respectively. Given the recent EU enhanced regulations that proposed extend mandatory ESG reporting to SMEs, this study aims to design and recommend an additional Income Statement to embed structured Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure. A restatement of the IS is organised following an adjusted Value-Added perspective to fit the purpose of sustainability disclosure. The above-mentioned Income Statement should be suitable and adaptable for entities of any size and operating in any industry. This goal can be achieved through customised input weighting. Therefore, this applied research can fill a current financial ESG disclosure gap, ensuring financial statements’ comparability and encouraging additional mandatory disclosures through standardisation. Two more items in the XBRL (IFRS-based) structure are suggested, leading to the introduction of one fully structured statement “{330000}—Statement of comprehensive income, profit or loss, by Added Value, ESG based” and a semi-structured “{814000}—Notes—ESG Ratings and Reporting” to better discuss and disclose the assumptions and results of the ESG Statement.

Original languageEnglish
Article number8876
Number of pages17
JournalSustainability (Switzerland)
Volume13
Issue number16
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 29 Aug 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • ESG reporting
  • EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act
  • IFRS
  • Income statement
  • Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD)
  • Statement of comprehensive income
  • Sustainability
  • Sustainable financial disclosure
  • Value-added
  • XBRL

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Geography, Planning and Development
  • Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
  • Environmental Science (miscellaneous)
  • Energy Engineering and Power Technology
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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