Resources
Browse our tools, guides, and real-world examples to understand how the ‘true and fair’ requirement can be used to bring social and environmental impacts into financial reporting.
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Investor guides (coming soon)
Company guides
The True & Fair Project engages legal experts around the world to produce guidance for company directors in regions where the true and fair requirement applies.
UK Company Guide
A guide that explains how company directors can recognise the cost of carbon in their financial statements under the ‘true and fair’ requirement set out in the UK Companies Act.
Spain Company Guide
A guide that explains how directors can recognise the cost of carbon in their financial statements under the ‘imagen fiel’ requirement set out in Spain’s Commercial Code and Spanish accounting standards.
Example financial statements
The following organisations have decided that additional information relating to sustainability issues is necessary for their accounts to give a true and fair view.
Staffordshire Chambers of Commerce
Social Value International
Social Value International
British Ceramics Biennial
Other legal research and guidance
Browse legal opinions, research papers and other technical guidance that explore how existing laws and standards can support the inclusion of social and environmental impacts in financial reporting.
Legal Opinion by George Bompas KC
The opinion on the true and fair requirement for company accounts is the first to consider the inclusion of sustainability issues. It states that directors and auditors have a ‘positive duty’ to consider if sustainability issues have consequences for the financial statements.
True and Fair: A Legal Imperative for the Financial Sector
A briefing note, produced by the Centre for Climate Engagement (CCE), which reinforces that directors are permitted, and may even be required in certain jurisdictions, to consider sustainability issues in order to meet accounting-related obligations.
Relevant articles
Sustainability Commitments and Financial Accounting
A blog by SVI that responds to a decision by the IFRS Foundation on whether net zero commitments made by companies are constructive obligations and how they should be treated, and how this links to the work of the True & Fair Project.
Boards can, and must, account for climate change
Accounting may not seem the most obvious arena for ambitious climate action, but CCE discusses the potential implications of the legal opinion commissioned by the True & Fair Project in 2024.
True and Fair? How directors should be presenting accounts in the 21st century
This blog explores how sustainability issues like climate damage or social harm can, and should, be reflected in financial accounts, and offers practical steps directors can take to lead the way.