SASB and CDP Announce Memorandum of Understanding

SAN FRANCISCO, June 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™ and CDP today announce today an agreement to deepen their partnership  towards advancing corporate disclosure on material sustainability issues. The Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), a special project of CDP's, dedicated to the integration of climate change-related disclosure into mainstream corporate reporting, will play a key role in this working relationship.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU), signed by SASB founder and executive director Dr. Jean Rogers and CDP chief innovation officer Nigel Topping, outlines cooperation for an initial period of three years.  The purpose of the MOU is to promote greater understanding, visibility and support for the development of disclosure standards for climate change-related and sustainability issues. Under the MOU, SASB will utilize CDP's data as evidence for determining the materiality of climate change-related issues in more than 80 industries. SASB will also receive technical assistance in referencing CDSB's Climate Change Reporting Framework for disclosure of climate change-related information. CDSB will in turn reference standards developed by SASB.

"Both SASB and CDSB are concerned with providing investors information to assess how climate change affects the strategy, performance and prospects of companies," says Dr. Rogers. "Our partnership will accelerate our collective work to benefit corporations and investors in understanding material risks and opportunities associated with climate change."

Nigel Topping says, "Having pioneered the development of natural capital reporting practices over the last twelve years, CDP has seen a rapid increase in demand for disclosure of material environmental data and industry-specific performance indicators. We welcome SASB's work which will go a long way to satisfying that demand and to providing more relevant, material and comparable information to investors and others."

Through 2015 SASB is developing sustainability accounting standards for more than 80 industries, designed for disclosure in annual mandatory filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The CDSB maintains the Climate Change Reporting Framework, which helps companies incorporate climate change-related information in mainstream financial reports.

About SASB
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™ is an independent 501(c)3 organization that establishes and maintains industry-tailored key performance indicators for use in disclosing material sustainability issues for the benefit of investors, corporations and the public. More than 600 participants, representing $8.8T assets under management and $3.1T market capital, have participated in standards development for three sectors to date.  For more information about SASB, visit www.sasb.org, or follow us on YouTube, Twitter or LinkedIn.

About CDP
CDP is an international, not-for-profit organization providing the only global system for companies and cities to measure, disclose, manage and share vital environmental information.  CDP works with market forces, including 722 institutional investors with assets of US$87 trillion, to motivate companies to disclose their impacts on the environment and natural resources and take action to reduce them.  CDP now holds the largest collection globally of primary climate change, water and forest risk commodities information and puts these insights at the heart of strategic business, investment and policy decisions.  Please visit www.cdp.net  or follow us @CDP to find out more.

About CDSB The Climate Disclosure Standards Board, a CDP special project, was launched at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in 2007.  CDSB's Climate Change Reporting Framework was released in 2010 and updated in 2012. Together with supporting guidance material, it is designed for use by companies when making disclosures in, or linked to, their mainstream financial reports about the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to their business.  CDSB's framework is "standards ready" for adoption by regulators contemplating the introduction or development of climate change disclosure practices. For more information on CDSB visit www.cdsb.net or follow @CDSBglobal

Media Contact

SASB
Amanda Medress
[email protected] 
(415) 830-9220 ext. 106

CDP
Catherine von Altheer
[email protected] 
+44 (0) 20 7249 3242

SOURCE Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)