SASB General Issue Category: Leadership & Governance

Under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), companies can have certain exemptions and flexibilities. These exemptions are designed to reduce the reporting burden for specific organizations and circumstances while ensuring transparency and compliance with the overall sustainability framework.

The Trustees of the IFRS Foundation announced the formation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) on 3 November 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow, following strong market demand for its establishment. The ISSB is developing—in the public interest—standards that will result in a high-quality, comprehensive global baseline of sustainability disclosures focused on the needs of investors and the financial markets.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) represent complementary facets of the global effort to standardize sustainability reporting. The ISSB provides a global baseline for sustainability and climate-related disclosures through its S1 and S2 standards, focusing on general sustainability issues and specific climate impacts, respectively. These standards aim to enhance transparency, consistency, and comparability in reporting across all sectors. SASB, now integrated under the IFRS Foundation alongside ISSB, complements this by offering industry-specific frameworks that identify material sustainability issues relevant to different sectors, providing detailed metrics for companies to measure and report their sustainability performance. Together, ISSB's broad principles and SASB's detailed industry guidance aim to streamline sustainability reporting, making it more relevant and actionable for stakeholders worldwide.

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures was created in late 2015 to help identify information needed by the financial sector to appropriately assess and price climate-related risks.

SASB Standards guide the disclosure of financially material sustainability information by companies to their investors.

IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information provides a set of disclosure requirements designed to enable companies to communicate to investors about the sustainability-related risks and opportunities they face over the short, medium, and long term.