Despite the Government recently abandoning the OFR, many companies in the UK and throughout the EU will still need to meet broadly similar environmental reporting requirements under the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive (AMD). Very few companies are aware of the reporting requirement contained in this Directive. Indeed Trucost conducted a survey to determine how many UK listed companies knew about their obligations to the AMD, during the week that the OFR was abolished, and the results were conclusive.

Simon Thomas, chief executive of Trucost, says: "Trucost has spoken to 161 listed UK companies and found that only 9% of those companies had heard of the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive. The comprehensive publicity and consultation surrounding the now abandoned OFR has led to a situation in the UK where few companies are aware of the underlying EU Directive that the OFR sought to implement. But the EU Directive hasn't gone away. We spoke to our contacts (mostly Company Secretaries) within companies who were dealing with the OFR, so they are experts on reporting. A significant communications exercise needs to be undertaken to ensure that companies have sufficient understanding of current environmental reporting obligations."

The main difference is that the OFR required a discussion of future prospects and encouraged the inclusion of broad social and community issues. Simon Thomas, chief executive of Trucost, says: "I hope that the removal of the requirement to make forward-looking statements without 'safe harbour' provisions will make it easier for more companies to report openly and transparently on material environmental issues in line with the existing AMD requirements." The focus on environment and employee issues, rather than broader social and community issues, lends itself better to quantitative reporting based on KPIs.