The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), regulator of accountancy profession in the country, has a strong tradition of service to the country towards sustainable economic development. ICAI through its Sustainability Reporting Standards Board is working relentlessly to augment the culture of accurate and reliable non-financial reporting, develop reporting metrics for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), benchmarking sustainability disclosures, strengthening assurance frameworks for non-financial information, and capacity building of the profession.

To strengthen the sustainability reporting in the country, ICAI has developed “Sustainability Reporting Maturity Model (SRMM) Version 1.0” with an objective to bring out a comprehensive scoring tool based on report of the Committee on Business Responsibility Reporting constituted by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in August, 2020.

CA. Nihar N Jambusaria, President, ICAI said “In order to be more transparent and responsible towards the society at large, now-a-days organizations are adopting triple bottom line approach – People, Planet and Profit. This Sustainability Reporting Maturity Model(SRMM) would form the foundation for benchmarking sustainability reporting of Indian corporates.”

President, ICAI further added “This Model would on one hand facilitate the corporates to assess their sustainability maturity level and at the same time will also aid in improving their scores with the availability of this easy-to-use tool thereby achieving the vision of sustainable ecosystem across the country. Our members will play an important role in helping the organizations increase their level of preparedness on the sustainability parameters.”

BRSR (Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report) scoring mechanism comprises of total 300 scores, by completing the scoring of all three sections and nine principles of the BRSR. SRMM (Sustainability Reporting Maturity Model) would allow the rating agencies and assurance providers to compare the sustainable nature of the Indian companies with other international companies. Being an innovative concept in sustainability ecosystem, SRMM is being registered as a trademark.

Sustainability Reporting Maturity Model is an innovative solution which offers the possibility for each corporate complying with BRSR to individually assess its position vis a vis various sustainability reporting maturity levels and achieve its vision of sustainable business. Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4 of Sustainability Maturity of corporates have been defined based on total range of scores obtained by a corporate in a financial year as per the BRSR scoring mechanism.

Corporates can self- evaluate their current level of maturity on the SRMM, identify areas where more focus is required and then develop a road map for upgrading to a higher level of maturity. For a sustainable green economy, we need every company accelerating and amplifying their positive impacts and making enhanced disclosures vis a vis non-financial information. ICAI has also set out a strategy for developing version 2.0 of SRMM based on the views/inputs from corporates with regard to implementation of SRMM Version 1.0.

For more details regarding SRMM Version 1.0, please visit https://resource.cdn.icai.org/63191srsb51141.pdf