Sustainability reporting used to be a carbon exercise: measure emissions, publish a number, move on. That era is ending. As a recent InTheBlack analysis lays out, disclosure is broadening to cover nature, biodiversity and human capital - and, crucially, shifting from voluntary goodwill to mandatory, standardised reporting. The International Sustainability Standards Board's IFRS S1 (general sustainability disclosures) and IFRS S2 (climate) now give the market a common, evidence-based language, and jurisdictions are writing them into law. In Australia, mandatory reporting began on 1 July 2025 for the largest companies, with mid-sized firms following within roughly a year.
For finance leaders across South-East Asia and beyond, the direction of travel matters more than any single country's timeline. Standardised sustainability disclosure is becoming part of the audited reporting cycle - which lands it squarely on the CFO's desk, not just the sustainability team's. The article's practical message is the one we would underline for our own clients: the organisations that treat this as a data and controls problem now will find the transition far cheaper than those that wait for a first mandatory deadline. Evidence quality, clear methodologies and a defensible audit trail are exactly what regulators and assurance providers will ask for.
That is the readiness gap we help close. DualMinds' sustainability reporting support is deliberately un-glamorous: an honest assessment of where you stand, navigation of the relevant frameworks, emissions and evidence mapping, and a phased roadmap so you build capability rather than scramble before a deadline. For most of the founders, funds and family offices we work with, the goal isn't a glossy ESG report - it's disclosure that survives scrutiny without distracting the business from running.
Sustainability reporting is following the path financial reporting took decades ago: from optional narrative to standardised, assured, decision-useful data. The teams that start early won't just be compliant - they'll have cleaner data to run the business with.
Source: Beyond emissions: the future of sustainability reporting - Sonakshi Babbar, InTheBlack / CPA Australia (September 2025).
