What the report is, and what it left out
IVE Group, which describes itself in its 2026
annual financial report as Australia’s largest integrated marketing communications
business
, lists among its principal activities the printing and distribution of
catalogues, magazines and marketing materials, and fibre-based packaging. Its FY26 revenue,
on the underlying basis it reports, was $937.4 million, down 1.8 per cent, according to its
26 August results release. The same report carries a sustainability report prepared under AASB S2, the
Australian climate disclosure standard, and IVE says plainly where it stands: This is the
Group’s first year of mandatory climate-related reporting under AASB S2 and a formal
transition plan, climate strategy and associated resourcing is yet to be developed.
It disclosed Scope 1 emissions, from fuel it burns and refrigerant leaks, and Scope 2, from
the electricity it buys. It did not disclose Scope 3, the emissions in what it buys and ships:
Consistent with the transition reliefs available to entities in their first annual
reporting period IVE has elected not to disclose Scope 3 GHG emissions in this report.
That
is the part that touches its suppliers. The report says a significant proportion of its
climate-related emissions exposure resides within its value chain, particularly in upstream
paper and packaging procurement and downstream freight and logistics activities
.
Electricity is about 80 per cent of the disclosed total (our arithmetic). That figure is
location-based, which the report defines as using location-based grid emission factors
.
The same report says IVE has a seven-year power purchase agreement covering approximately
98% of electricity demand at major production sites from 1 January 2024
, and that it
does not currently retire renewable energy certificates associated with the PPA
. The
renewable contract and the reported Scope 2 number sit side by side in the report; the number
is the grid-based one.
- Scope 3:
Not disclosed in FY26
- No emissions reduction target and
has not made a net-zero emissions commitment
- No carbon credits or offsets used
Paper is in the risk register
Three climate risks were taken to a quantitative assessment, and two of them run through the trade’s own inputs. The first is about the stock itself.
“Increased heat, water stress and changing precipitation patterns in paper-producing regions may affect the availability, cost and reliability of paper and packaging inputs.”
The anticipated effect is Higher paper procurement and freight costs over the medium to
long term
, but IVE puts no figure on it: The climate-specific financial impact cannot be
reliably quantified due to uncertainty regarding timing, scale and geographic concentration of
supply impacts.
Its responses are a diversified supplier base, paper held in inventory, and
sourcing from other regions. Its planned actions are the lines a paper merchant or mill
supplying it would notice: Strengthen supplier climate resilience expectations
and
Improve supplier-level visibility of climate exposure and resilience
.
The second is cost. IVE’s transition risk says Carbon pricing mechanisms and
regulatory change may increase costs across the value chain particularly in paper, freight,
postage and energy where suppliers pass through higher emissions-related costs
. Postage is
already rising for its own reasons, as our
comparison of Australia Post’s September charges showed. This risk, too, is one IVE
says cannot be reliably quantified
. The planned action is to Improve Scope 3
visibility and explore contracted pricing with key suppliers exposed to carbon-related cost
increases
. The one risk it did put a number on is
up to $1 million per event
: acute hazards such as floods,
storms and heatwaves at its own sites.
The energy target it did not reach
IVE had an operational target: a 25 per cent improvement in energy used per tonne of fibre-based material going into production, at its print, packaging and other production sites in NSW and Victoria, measured from FY23 to the end of 2025.
- Status, in IVE’s table:
Not achieved.
- A tonne of production means a tonne of fibre-based material input
The report gives the reason: while it progressed plans to consolidate several
manufacturing operations into its new Kemps Creek facility, management did not pursue significant operational
efficiency improvements or replacement of plant and equipment at sites scheduled for
consolidation or relocation
. It also says it previously communicated this as an
emissions intensity target, and that performance was monitored throughout using energy
intensity. Future targets, it says, will weigh
the Kemps Creek site, its acquisitions and The maturity and quality of Scope 3 data and
emissions boundaries
.
Who has to report, and when
The Scope 3 relief IVE used is a one-year allowance. The standard, AASB
S2 as registered on the Federal Register, says In the first annual reporting period
in which an entity applies this Standard
an entity may use relief under which it is not
required to disclose its Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions
. Paragraph 29 otherwise
requires Scope 3 alongside Scope 1 and 2. For measuring it, the standard requires a reporter
to prioritise inputs using four characteristics, listed in no particular order, one of which
is data from specific activities within the entity’s value chain
. For a print buyer,
its printers are part of that value chain.
The obligation reaches companies in three waves. ASIC’s guide for small business sets them out, each group meeting two of three tests:
- Financial years from 1 January 2025Group 1: revenue over $500 million, assets over $1 billion, more than 500 employees (two of the three)
- Financial years from 1 July 2026Group 2: revenue over $200 million, assets over $500 million, more than 250 employees
- Financial years from 1 July 2027Group 3: revenue over $50 million, assets over $25 million, more than 100 employees
The second group’s first year has therefore already begun for companies with a June
year end. ASIC tells sole traders, partnerships and trusts that the requirements will not
directly apply to them, and tells a company under the third group’s thresholds that
these reporting requirements will not directly apply to you until 2028
, and then only
if it meets two of the tests. For a print business below those lines, the question is the
indirect one, and ASIC answers it: if a customer or supplier is a large
business, it is possible they may ask you for some information to assist them in meeting
their reporting obligations
.
“In many cases, it is expected that large businesses and financial institutions will use estimates and industry averages to meet this requirement, rather than sourcing the data directly from small-to-medium sized businesses.”
What it means for a printer
Our view. IVE’s report is a useful thing for the trade to have read, because it is a print business doing this for the first time in public, and it shows where the hard numbers are not. Paper and freight are named as risks and left unquantified. Scope 3 is absent this year by permission, and the standard names activity data from the value chain among the inputs a reporter must prioritise once it starts.
So the sensible expectation for a printer with large customers is not a flood of questionnaires next month. ASIC itself expects estimates and averages to carry much of the load. It is that the customers who do ask will want activity data rather than a sustainability brochure: paper by weight and grade, electricity by site, freight by job. A printer who can already pull those from invoices and meter reads is ready for the question; one who cannot will be described by an industry average, which may or may not flatter it.
Two smaller lessons sit in IVE’s own pages. A renewable power contract and a location-based Scope 2 figure are different things, and IVE reports both. And a target that was not met is disclosed as not met, with the reason given. That is the standard of candour a printer should expect to be held to by customers reporting under the same rules.
What we check next
IVE’s FY27 sustainability report, the first in which the first-year Scope 3 relief is no longer available to it, and its future targets. As at 8 October 2026 its investor site listed the FY26 financial report, results release and presentation, but no separate FY26 annual report.