The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board released a set of recommended changes Thursday to three of its remaining active projects as its parent organization prepares to be merged into the International Sustainability Standards Board at the end of this month.
Last June, SASB and another standard-setter, the International Integrated Reporting Council, merged together to form the Value Reporting Foundation. Last November, they announced plans to be “consolidated” into the ISSB, a new board that the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation set up as a way to bring together the various standard-setters in the environmental, social and governance space as ESG funds grow in popularity among investors who have been asking for more consistency in how they’re measured. Ahead of the transition, the SASB Standards Board has continued to operate under the auspices of the VRF and work on some of its existing projects, even exploring some new ones. However, as the June 30 date approaches for the VRF and another standard-setter, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, to be absorbed into the ISSB, the SASB Standards Board made some recommendations on how to proceed with those ongoing projects. Last week, the ISSB clarified its plans for how it would be making use of the SASB standards, as well as the integrated reporting framework and principles that came from the IIRC (
The SASB Standards Board made recommendations on three of its current projects:
“With the momentum surrounding the upcoming consolidation, our work on the SASB Standards hasn’t slowed, but rather has taken on a new focus — namely, ensuring a smooth transition to the ISSB without circumventing the rigorous due process that has been integral to our standard setting,” said SASB Standards Board chair Jeffrey Hales in a statement. “In publishing these recommended changes, we summarize our progress on these projects in preparation for the ISSB to decide how best to integrate these workstreams into its agenda priorities.”
The ISSB is still in the process of naming all the board members, but so far it has named a chair, Emmanuel Faber, a vice chair, Sue Lloyd, and special advisor Janine Guillot, who was formerly CEO of SASB. So far, it has issued its own exposure drafts of future standards on
The SASB Standards Board published its recommendations for the ISSB’s consideration and for market participants interested in following continued efforts to improve and maintain the SASB Standards. It said any future updates to the SASB standards resulting from these projects will be subject to ISSB due process prior to being finalized.
The recommended changes to the standards are as follows:
Content governance in the internet media and services industry
- Addition of a new disclosure topic on content governance and freedom of expression, and five corresponding metrics to capture risks and opportunities associated with user-generated content; and,
- The relocation of two existing metrics, TC-IM-220a.5 and TC-IM-220a.6, from the current data privacy, advertising standards and freedom of expression disclosure topic into the new content governance and freedom of expression disclosure topic.
Plastics risks and opportunities in the chemicals industry
- The addition of a new disclosure topic on management of single-use plastics, and five related metrics to capture risks and opportunities associated with the management of single-use plastics across the product lifecycle.
Alternative products in the food and beverage sector
- The addition of a new disclosure topic on product innovation, and three corresponding metrics in the meat, poultry and dairy and processed foods standards to capture risks and opportunities associated with companies’ management of alternative protein products.
- The addition of a new disclosure topic on product portfolio diversification, and three corresponding metrics in the food retailers and distributors standard to capture risks and opportunities associated with companies’ management of alternative protein products.
The proposed changes, along with a basis for conclusions document outlining the SASB Standards Board’s rationale, can be found here:
