Keynote Address

The Future of Sustainability Reporting Standards

Alan L. Beller, JD

Where would I start in talking about sustainability and corporate reporting? First, corporations all over the world identify and understand the key factors behind their success, and also identify and understand the key factors that are risks or obstacles to their success. Second, investors should have enough access to information about those factors to make informed individual investment decisions, which collectively should become the financial market's capital allocation decisions. Some key factors are readily apparent in historical financial statements and other financial reporting. Others are less obvious but can represent potential red flags, such as quarter after quarter of net income accompanied by negative operating cash flow, quarter after quarter of negative current ratios, or topline growth that correlates entirely to acquisition activity.