We now have memos from 27 countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, China, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Another 10 or so countries are in process. As these opinions are completed in the coming months, with the permission of the firms preparing them, I will send them along. I am also in the exploratory phase in another roughly 10 countries. My goal is to have opinions from all of the G20 countries and 10 important other ones by the end of the year. In terms of the G20, I’m pleased to say that the firms preparing the ones still in process have promised to get them to me by the end of the year.

As you all now know, these legal memos are being posted on the ABA’s Sustainable Development Task Force website’s “Duty of Board Directors” section. My thanks again to Lee DeHihns, the Chair of the Task Force, for making this possible. I very much appreciate the pro bono contributions that have been made so far, all of which are posted here. Tim and I will soon start working with the UN Global Compact to solicit opinions from as many countries where these memos are relevant. We want to have as complete a data base as possible.

The purpose of this campaign, as all of you know, is to urge companies to have their board of directors issue an annual “Statement of Significant Audiences and Materiality.” While this statement is values neutral (e.g., the board can decide that the only significant audience is short-term shareholders so the company can play the earnings game), you all know that my goal for this is to support integrated reporting and the creation of a sustainable society.

Kind regards,

Bob