Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) is a professional services and investment management company that specializes in real estate. JLL is unique in the on-going study I’m making of emerging integrated reporting practices in the U.S. This is because they have been participating in the movement but still are not issuing a stand-alone integrated report.
Here are the basic stats on their report:
| Year | 2014 |
| Title | Global Sustainability Report |
| Theme | Our cities, Our future |
| Type | Supplement to annual report |
| Location | Sustainability web page |
| Media | Document |
| Number of Pages | 27 |
| Value Creation | Narrative |
| Value Distribution | Narrative |
| Stakeholder | Narrative |
| Standards | IIRC, GRI |
| Assurance | N/A |
JLL is one of the few U.S. companies that cites the IIRC in its report. But the story is somewhat complicated. Per the report introduction:
JLL was one of the pilot companies participating in the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and we now sit on the IIRC’s Business Network. JLL supports the general principles designed to promote communications about how an organization’s strategy, governance, performance and prospects lead to the creation of value over the short, medium and long term. This Sustainability Report focuses on our sustainability strategy and performance. Our Annual Report focuses on our business strategy and our financial performance. Our governance and remuneration practices are reported primarily in the Proxy Statement for our Annual Meeting of Shareholders.
The report is organized around five sustainability focus areas:
Although there is no explicit mention of the integrated reporting capitals, these focus areas do correspond to a number of the capitals including human, natural and relationship capital. In each of these sections, there are a number pages of narrative and a summary metrics graphic such as this one:
These graphics are the main (somewhat limited) source of metrics in the sustainability report. This means that the coverage of the capitals shakes out as follows:
| Coverage of the Capitals | None | Narrative | Single Year
Metrics |
Multi-Year
Metrics |
| Financial Capital | * | |||
| Fixed Capital | * | |||
| Digital Capital | ** | |||
| Human Capital | X | |||
| Relationship Capital | X | |||
| Natural Capital | X |
* There is a one-page “Who We Are” summary at the beginning of the sustainability report that highlights key demographic information for the company including information on their buildings and financials.
** The introduction to JLL’s annual report includes a six-page discussion of their digital capital entitled “The technology imperative.” It includes extensive narrative and single-year metrics describing their data management, data integration and analytic capabilities. Even though this is not in the sustainability report, it’s worth mentioning as a great overview of digital or intellectual capital.
What’s missing from JLL’s approach is a graphic or discussion to show how all the capitals are connected with their strategy and value creation. They’re not the only company to lack this and, as anyone can tell you, this is a hard thing to do.
Read a comparative analysis of JLL and nine other U.S. integrated reports: