Boards are operating in ever more complex and challenging business environments. At the same time, their behaviour and standards are coming under increasing external scrutiny, for example through the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) and Walker Reviews in the UK. This publication champions the concept of a ‘mandate’ which sets out the ‘essence’ of the ‘character’ and distinctiveness of the company. We believe that this ‘working charter’ can help boards navigate their way through increasingly choppy waters by facilitating more effective strategic engagement: primarily between executive directors and NEDs to improve board effectiveness, but with the associated benefit that it drives communication externally with the key stakeholders, including investors, government and regulators, and society at large. Accompanying this document is a 'tool-kit' which provides an agenda for board discussions. Please download this here.  A series of case studies illustrating how the board mandate may,...

Natural capital – our ecosystems, biodiversity, and natural resources – underpins economies, societies and individual wellbeing. The values of its myriad benefits are, however, often overlooked or poorly understood. They are rarely taken fully into accountthrough economic signals in markets, or in day to day decisions by business and citizens, nor indeed reflected adequately in the accounts of society. The steady loss of forests, soils, wetlands and coral reefs is closely tied to this economic invisibility. So too are the losses of species and of productive assets like fisheries, driven partly by ignoring values beyond the immediate and private. We are running down our natural capital stock without understanding the value of what we are losing. Missed opportunities to invest in this natural capital contribute to the biodiversity crisisthat is becoming more evident and more pressing by the day. The degradation of soils, air, water and biological resources can negatively impact on...

The Global Leaders of Tomorrow project is part an ongoing programme of research led by Ashridge Business School as part of the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) Corporate Knowledge and Learning Programme and has received financial support from the EABIS Founding Corporate Partners IBM, Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft, Shell and Unilever. The research is based on a global survey of CEOs and senior executives at companies participating in the UN Global Compact conducted in September and October 2008, at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis. This is complemented by in-depth interviews with 33 individuals, including HR and sustainability executives and other thought leaders.

Qualitative Growth by Fritjof Capra and Hazel Henderson has been published by Tomorrow’s Company with the ICAEW.  This paper not only builds on our mission to understand better business success and how it can best be achieved, but also sets this in what Tomorrow's Company describe as the triple context: that sustainable value creation will be rooted in harnessing the full opportunity of recognising the links between the economic, social and environmental sub-systems on which we all depend for our lives and prosperity. Although sustainability is a growing issue, it is not well understood. As the subject is prioritised by business, governments and civil society, the need to clarify how to do it, how to measure and report on it and how to assure sustainability information become key issues. In the ICAEW landmark publication Sustainability: the role of accountants the ICAEW argued that these areas of expertise – building and managing flows of valuable, reliable and trusted information...

On 29th April Mark Goyder, Founder Director of Tomorrow's Company, presented the awards at the Strategic Planning Society's 2009 'Strategic Value in Corporate Reporting Awards' and gave this owerpoint presentation.The subject of his speech was Sustainability in Annual Reporting and as the awards recognised the best narrative reporting Mark described the secret of storytelling; that being to describe a quest, an adventure, a journey with its protagonists, its milestones, its ups and downs and twists and turns. He said that sustainability is a crucial part of the landscape and that yesterday's societal concerns are today's customer concerns and tomorrow's shareholder returns.You can find a recording of Mark's speech to listen to along side this powerpoint presentation here.