SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
Integrated Reporting was built on a premise that has since become regulatory consensus: financial and sustainability performance are not separate stories — they are the same story told at different levels of granularity. The IFRS Foundation's acquisition of the IIRC made this institutional. IFRS S1 and S2 now share the same investor-facing purpose as the Integrated Reporting framework — demonstrating how sustainability factors affect business models, strategy, and financial outcomes. GRI's cooperation agreement with IFRS has further tightened the connection between impact disclosure and financial disclosure. The world's major frameworks are converging toward a single investor-grade sustainability and financial reporting system — and Integrated Reporting is the governance logic at its centre.
Semtrio advises on Integrated Reporting framework application at precisely this convergence point — as a GRI Community Member with deep IFRS S1/S2 methodology expertise, we design integrated reports that satisfy the IIRC framework while simultaneously serving as the investor-grade narrative foundation for IFRS S2 disclosure and GRI reporting. One analytical process. One coherent argument. Every framework aligned.
The IFRS Foundation's consolidation of the IIRC means that Integrated Reporting and IFRS S1/S2 are being developed within the same institution — with explicit intent to align their requirements. IFRS S1's general requirements for sustainability-related financial disclosures echo the Integrated Reporting framework's principles of connectivity, materiality, and strategic focus. Organizations that build genuine Integrated Reporting capability are building the same analytical infrastructure that IFRS S1 and S2 require.
GRI addresses impact materiality — what the organization does to people and the environment. The Integrated Reporting framework addresses financial materiality — how sustainability factors affect value creation and financial outcomes. ESRS's double materiality requirement covers both dimensions simultaneously. Organizations that structure their sustainability reporting at the intersection of GRI and the IIRC framework are producing the full picture that ESRS, IFRS S2, and sophisticated investors all require.
Institutional investors — particularly those operating under TCFD, SFDR, and climate stewardship commitments — are now evaluating organizations specifically on the quality of their capital connectivity analysis: how explicitly does the organization demonstrate that ESG factors affect its financial risk profile, strategic resilience, and long-term value creation? An integrated report that fails to answer this question credibly is not a reporting failure — it is a capital allocation signal.
The convergence of IIRC, IFRS S1/S2, GRI, and ESRS is not primarily a compliance convenience — it is an analytical alignment. All four frameworks require organizations to answer the same fundamental question: how do sustainability factors affect value creation, financial outcomes, and stakeholder impact over time? The difference is the lens: GRI answers from the impact perspective, IFRS S2 answers from the financial risk perspective, ESRS requires both simultaneously, and the IIRC framework provides the governance logic that connects all three.
Semtrio designs integrated reports at the intersection of all four frameworks — using the IIRC capital model as the structural architecture, mapping capital interdependencies against IFRS S2 risk categories and GRI material topics, and producing a coherent investor-grade narrative that satisfies all three simultaneously. The analytical work is done once. The argument is made once. Every framework receives a compliant output from the same integrated thinking process.
OUR PROCESS
A genuine integrated report — built at the convergence of IIRC, IFRS S1/S2, and GRI.
IFRS S1/S2 and the Integrated Reporting framework now share the same institutional home within the IFRS Foundation — organizations building IFRS S2 disclosure and integrated reporting simultaneously can design both from a single analytical process, eliminating the duplication that arises when they are treated as separate engagements.
Learn moreGHG emissions are among the most financially material ESG factors for most sectors — integrated reports cannot demonstrate credible capital connectivity without verified, methodology-aligned emissions data that quantifies natural capital depletion and transition risk exposure in financial terms.
Learn moreESRS's double materiality requirement covers both the impact materiality dimension (GRI / IIRC natural and social capitals) and the financial materiality dimension (IFRS S2 / IIRC financial capital). Semtrio designs a single double materiality assessment that satisfies all three frameworks simultaneously.
Learn moreCDP Climate has formally aligned its questionnaire with IFRS S2 — organizations producing integrated reports that incorporate IFRS S2 climate risk analysis are simultaneously building the data infrastructure that drives CDP Climate scoring. Semtrio structures both from the same analytical foundation.
Learn moreGRI Community member. Deep IFRS S1/S2 expertise. Positioned where integrated reporting, IFRS S1/S2, and GRI formally converge.
Semtrio's positioning — a GRI Community Member with deep, current expertise in IFRS S1/S2 — places us at the precise intersection where Integrated Reporting, IFRS S1/S2, and GRI are formally converging. We track how these frameworks are evolving in real time, not from the outside looking in. That positioning means we understand exactly how the IIRC capital model maps to IFRS S2 risk categories, how GRI material topics correspond to integrated report capital elements, and how the connectivity analysis that makes an integrated report credible to investors is the same analytical work that IFRS S2's scenario analysis requirements demand.
The practical result is integrated reports that are not simply IIRC-compliant — they are designed to simultaneously serve as the investor-grade narrative foundation for IFRS S2 disclosure, as the impact context for GRI reporting, and as the strategic framework that ESRS's general disclosures under ESRS 2 require. One analytical engagement. Three framework outputs. No duplication.
Talk to our team about your integrated reportWhether you're scoping a single service engagement, evaluating end-to-end advisory across multiple clusters, or looking for one accountable partner across strategy and disclosure — start here.
Yaren Ünal
Senior Specialist,Client Solutions
Hamza Söylemez
Specialist,Client Solutions
Frequently asked questions about integrated reporting
Integrated Reporting is a framework developed by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC), now part of the IFRS Foundation, that requires organizations to explain how they create value over time through their management of six capitals: financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relationship, and natural. The IFRS Foundation's consolidation of the IIRC signals the intention to align Integrated Reporting with IFRS S1 and S2 as part of a unified investor-grade reporting system — IFRS S1 shares the same principles of materiality, connectivity, and strategic focus as the IIRC framework. GRI's cooperation agreement with IFRS further tightens the connection between impact disclosure (GRI's domain) and financial disclosure (IFRS S2's domain). An integrated report designed at this convergence point simultaneously serves as the foundation for IFRS S2 disclosure and the strategic context for GRI sustainability reporting.
The IFRS Foundation acquired the IIRC and its Integrated Reporting framework in 2022, signalling its intention to integrate the two approaches within a coherent investor-grade disclosure system. IFRS S1 — General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information — mirrors several of the IIRC framework's core principles: materiality based on investor information needs, connectivity between sustainability and financial performance, and a forward-looking strategic orientation. IFRS S2's requirement to demonstrate how climate risks and opportunities affect an organization's business model and strategy is substantively the same as the IIRC framework's requirement to demonstrate how natural capital management affects value creation. Organizations that build genuine Integrated Reporting capability — particularly the capital materiality analysis and connectivity framework — are building the same analytical infrastructure that IFRS S2 requires.
The quality of the capital connectivity analysis is what distinguishes genuine integrated reports from rebranded sustainability reports in the eyes of institutional investors. A credible integrated report provides specific, verifiable evidence of capital interdependencies: how natural capital dependencies in the supply chain create price volatility and supply disruption risk; how human capital investment in safety programmes has reduced operational incidents and insurance costs; how intellectual capital investments in process efficiency are reducing energy intensity and Scope 1 emissions. These connections must be quantified where data supports it, and the methodology for any financial quantification must be documented. Investors operating under IFRS S2 and TCFD frameworks are now specifically trained to look for this analytical depth — and to distinguish reports that demonstrate genuine connectivity from those that substitute ESG narrative for analysis.
GRI and the IIRC framework address complementary dimensions of sustainability reporting. GRI addresses impact materiality — what the organization does to people and the environment — covering all six IIRC capital categories from an impact perspective. The IIRC framework addresses financial materiality — how sustainability factors affect value creation and financial outcomes — covering the same capitals from an investor-facing perspective. ESRS's double materiality requirement effectively requires both lenses simultaneously: impact materiality (GRI's domain) and financial materiality (IIRC/IFRS S2's domain). Organizations that structure their sustainability reporting to satisfy both GRI and the IIRC framework are producing the full double materiality picture that ESRS, IFRS S2, and sophisticated investors all require. Semtrio designs integrated reports to operate at both dimensions simultaneously — mapping each capital to both its GRI impact dimension and its IFRS S2 financial risk dimension from the outset.
Semtrio's Integrated Reporting advisory follows four phases. We begin with capital identification and multi-framework materiality mapping — identifying material capitals under the IIRC framework and simultaneously mapping each to IFRS S2 risk categories, GRI material topics, and ESRS topical standards. We then conduct the capital connectivity analysis — mapping how the organization's management of non-financial capitals affects financial performance and strategic resilience, with quantitative linkage where data supports it. We develop the full integrated report narrative as a coherent investor-facing argument, structured to simultaneously serve as the IFRS S2 strategic narrative foundation and the GRI management approach context. We produce the final publication with framework extension outputs — IFRS S2 disclosure mapping, GRI Content Index alignment, ESRS topical standard correspondence — so that the integrated report serves all three frameworks from a single analytical engagement.
Talk to our team about your integrated reportWhether you are producing your first integrated report or redesigning an existing one for IFRS S2, GRI, and ESRS alignment — we will conduct the capital analysis, develop the interoperable narrative, and produce outputs that satisfy every framework from one engagement.
Whether you are producing your first integrated report or redesigning an existing one for IFRS S2, GRI, and ESRS alignment — we will conduct the capital analysis, develop the interoperable narrative, and produce outputs that satisfy every framework from one engagement.
