Handbook

This course begins with an introduction to sustainable policy and regulations, including current and emerging sustainability policy around the world, such as the USA Inflation Reduction Act (2022) and the European Union’s European Climate Law (2021), and Australia's Safeguard Mechanism and groundbreaking Modern Slavery Act, with consideration given to their … For more content click the Read More button below. Directors and Boards must understand their obligations to the long-term financial health of the organisations they govern, and therefore their requirements to manage for sustainable outcomes. In order to achieve this, organisations must understand global and national sustainability policies, and ensure that their governance structures and reporting frameworks support and enable their commitments to sustainability. This is critical to ensure that managers can operationalise and implement these sustainability commitments and for the organisation to avoid greenwashing and the risk of failing to deliver on commitments. The second half of this course introduces the Integrated Reporting (IR) Framework. Environment, social and governance (ESG) reporting is gaining momentum from the investment community, which is starting to expect businesses to invest in a sustainable future. While Integrated Reporting is a new way for organisations to report to the market, it will also assist organisations to apply integrated thinking to decision-making. IR results in business decisions that best utilise all available resources and relationships (not just financial capital, but also others such as human, intellectual, relationship and environmental capitals) and drive long-term enterprise value creation. This course also provides an overview of recent developments in business reporting (such as International Financial Reporting Standards – IFRS, International Sustainability Standards Board – ISSB, US Securities and Exchange Commission – SEC, European Financial Reporting Advisory Group – EFRAG).