More than 150 finance and sustainability professionals gathered around one question: how does corporate reporting become a steering tool? On 24 March 2026, the 13th edition of The Future of Corporate Reporting took place. Hosts Jeroen Beentjes (Finext) and Wesley Schulte (Intire) welcomed the audience for an afternoon of keynotes, breakout sessions and conversations between finance and sustainability professionals. That mix was deliberate: both groups need each other, and that only becomes clear when they talk. One thread ran through every session: compliance is not a strategy. The organisations that stood out use data to steer. Internally, intentionally, and from a clear conviction.
Keynote Willem Schramade: Value Creation Across Three Dimensions
Professor Willem Schramade (Nyenrode Business University) opened with a sharp observation. Most annual reports lack a clear picture of value creation across three dimensions: financial, social and ecological. As an investor, that is exactly what you want to see. His explanation was direct:
"If you can't produce meaningful external information, your internal information probably isn't in order either."
His point: map your organisation's value profile and show the path it is taking. To illustrate what that looks like in practice, he applied the framework to the full AEX. The result was striking: 30% of the financial value in the index is created at the expense of nature and society. The data to build that picture already exists, but companies are not using it. From the audience came the familiar concern: are estimates not too unreliable to base decisions on? Schramade was brief.
"Perfection is the enemy of the good. Focus on what matters most, make a serious estimate and back it up well. That gets you a long way."
From Zero to Submitted SBTi Targets in Six Months at Heuschen & Schrouff
In the first breakout session, Kim Schoppink (SBTi), Romano Frau (Heuschen & Schrouff) and Nathalie de Vries (Intire) walked participants through a concrete case. Heuschen & Schrouff went from no CO₂ reporting to validated Science Based Targets in six months. The key was prioritisation: start with the largest Scope 3 category, work product by product, and build from there.
Romano Frau: "Our retail partners told us: if you don't do it, the door closes on 31 December." The pressure from retail was what got things moving. Kim Schoppink: "Once you have a validated SBTi target, you know it's aligned with what the science requires. How you get there, the company has to figure out itself."
IFRS 18 and the Design of Your EPM Environment
In the second breakout session, Michiel Hilberts and Jeroen Beentjes (Finext) walked the room through what IFRS 18 means in practice for setting up an EPM environment.
IFRS 18 replaces IAS 1 and introduces five mandatory categories in the income statement: operating, investing, financing, income tax and discontinued operations. The new standard affects your chart of accounts, your data dimensions, your consolidation structure and how management talks about results.
Starting with the layout of the new P&L and fitting everything else around it later does not work. That path leads to manual corrections, workarounds and late-stage arguments with the auditor. IFRS 18 requires a coherent approach: presentation choices, account structure and reporting systems need to connect, and in that sequence.
Many organisations use adjusted metrics like Adjusted EBITDA to explain performance. Under IFRS 18, those externally published metrics must be fully reconciled with IFRS figures, with a stable definition and clear ownership. Organisations still handling that in spreadsheets are storing up trouble.
Jeroen and Michiel were clear: start now. The mandatory effective date is 1 January 2027, but the comparative figures for 2026 must already follow the new structure. That means classification logic, account structure and EPM setup all need to be in place this year. Organisations that haven't started by the end of 2026 will be playing catch-up in 2027.
Keynote Jasper de Wit (Haskoning): Translating Purpose into Steering Information
Jasper de Wit, CFO and Chief Value Officer of the Year 2025, explained how Haskoning built its own measurement framework for social value creation, driven by the conviction that it is simply the right way to run a company.
The organisation's purpose, Enhancing Society Together, anchors every decision. Six years ago, Haskoning translated that purpose into five themes: climate change, biodiversity and natural systems, circularity, social value, and safety and wellbeing. Every project is scored on these themes on a scale of -1 to +2. Last year, Haskoning measured nearly 80% of its revenue through that matrix.
De Wit was candid about what did not work. Translating organisational objectives into individual targets across a company of 7,000 professionals? They tried four or five times. It failed every time.
"The strength of this company lies in knowledge, innovation, collaboration and the intrinsic motivation to make an impact. I should not try to force that into a cascade model."
The solution: a company-wide profit share, combined with purpose goals at board level and genuine dialogue with all teams. That delivered more than any KPI cascade ever had. The score itself is not the goal. The conversations it triggers are: teams deciding whether to take on a project, or sitting down with clients to explore where they can create more impact.
"What you measure, you can discuss. What you discuss, you can use to change behaviour."
Panel Discussion: CFO, Professor and Sustainability Director on Steering Beyond Financial Value
The closing panel brought together De Wit, Schramade and Sascha Goddeke-Mulder (Director of Sustainable Business at NS). Schramade put his finger on the real problem: the biggest obstacle to connecting financial and non-financial data is rarely the methodology. It is the silos. Finance and sustainability teams operating separately, with their own systems and their own definitions.
A finance professional who breaks through that and holds sustainability data to the same standard as financial data adds direct value to board conversations. Goddeke-Mulder: "We want to understand what's underneath the numbers and which drivers we can bring into our ESG story." That is precisely where finance makes the difference: not publishing the ratio, but getting the underlying data right.
Three Sessions, One Lesson: Start With What You Have
CFOs spoke with sustainability managers, financial controllers with ESG reporting professionals. You don't see that at every event.
Looking across the afternoon, the sessions together tell one story. Schramade showed that the data to measure value creation across three dimensions already exists. Companies just aren't using it. Heuschen & Schrouff proved you can go from zero CO₂ data to a validated SBTi target in six months, if you prioritise and bring everyone along internally. Haskoning built a complete steering system grounded in purpose, with no regulation requiring it. Nearly 80% of their revenue now runs through that matrix.
None of these organisations waited for perfect data or mandatory standards. They started. That is the difference between reporting because you have to and steering because you want to make an impact.
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