SASB Issues Provisional Sustainability Accounting Standards for Transportation Industries

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 24, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™, a 501c3 non-profit organization that provides sustainability accounting standards for use by publicly listed corporations in the U.S., today issued provisional standards for eight industries in the Transportation sector. SASB standards help corporations comply with existing regulation, Regulation S-K, to disclose all material information in the Form 10-K.

This sector reaches the halfway point in SASB's ambitious goal to deliver standards for ten major sectors, comprised of 80+ industries, to the U.S. capital markets. SASB's development of sustainability accounting standards is the biggest event for making relevant and reliable information available to the capital markets since the creation of FASB in 1973.

SASB's provisional standards address environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues most likely to contain material information for companies in Transportation industries: Automobiles, Auto Parts, Car Rental & Leasing, Airlines, Air Freight & Logistics, Marine Transportation, Rail Transportation, and Road Transportation. Examples of issues included are accident & safety management, environmental footprint of fuel use, and fair labor practices.   

"Sustainability topics that are likely to be material for industries in the Transportation Sector—from car manufacturing to transportation services—focus on the environmental and social impacts of operating transportation equipment, mainly fuel efficiency and safety," says Dr. Jean Rogers, Founder and CEO of SASB. "This is the result of the groundbreaking research that supports the SASB Transportation standards, filtering traditional sustainability topics through the lens of investor interest and material financial impact."

SASB standards are designed to provide investors with decision-useful information on material sustainability impacts. SASB analyzed the quality of disclosure of SASB's Transportation disclosure topics in the latest Form 10-Ks and 20-Fs from leading companies in the sector and found that 16 percent of disclosures are boilerplate, 54 percent are industry-specific, and 17 percent are metrics; the remaining percentage represents lack of disclosure. The goal of SASB standards is to provide investors with complete data sets and comparable data, so they can benchmark and compare companies.

"More and more investors see the sustainability of company activities as a key input to their investment decisions. SASB's moves to expand reporting and provide more transparency and disclosure in this area will be particularly welcomed by this growing group," said Bob Collie, Chief Research Strategist, Americas Institutional at Russell Investments.  

SASB's standards development process is rooted in evidence and shaped by consensus. The working groups for Transportation industries— which included 230 registrants— represented publicly traded companies with $621 billion market capital and investment firms with $3.3 trillion in assets under management.

Guidance for how companies can plan to incorporate SASB standards into existing disclosure and performance management processes can be found here. SASB's standards will remain provisional for at least one year after the issuance date. SASB welcomes feedback on the standards during the provisional phase.   

About SASB

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™ is an independent 501(c)3 organization that develops industry-specific standards for use in disclosing material sustainability information in mandatory filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, and Mary Schapiro, former SEC chairman, serve as chair and vice chair of SASB's Board of Directors, and Dr. Jean Rogers serves as Founder and CEO. More than 1,890 individuals representing $21T assets under management and $9.5T market capital have participated in multi-stakeholder industry working groups informing standards development to date. For more information about SASB, visit www.sasb.org, or follow us on YouTube, Twitter or LinkedIn.

CONTACT: Michael Boonshoft 1-212-994-7538, [email protected], Amanda Medress, +1- 415-830-9220, ext. 106, [email protected]

SOURCE Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)