SASB Issues Provisional Sustainability Accounting Standards for Non-Renewable Resources Industries

SAN FRANCISCO, June 25, 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 industries in the Non-Renewable Resources sector. SASB standards help corporations comply with existing regulation, Regulation S-K, to disclose all material issues in the Form 10-K. SASB is accredited to set standards by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

SASB's provisional standards address environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues most likely to contain material information for companies in eight industries in the Non-Renewable Resources sector: Oil & Gas - Exploration & Production, Oil & Gas - Midstream, Oil & Gas - Refining & Marketing, Oil & Gas - Services, Coal Operations, Iron & Steel Producers,  Metals & Mining, and Construction Materials. Examples of issues included are greenhouse gas emissions; air quality; community relations; and health, safety, and emergency management.   

"SASB's approach is elegantly and practically designed. The engagement process used to develop its standards is a model others should follow," says Sarah Teslik, Senior Vice President, Communications, Public Affairs and Governance, Apache Corporation. "Its standards have great potential to make a significant difference to globally important issues."

SASB standards are designed to be concise and cost-effective for companies and decision-useful for investors. The average number of sustainability issues in each industry standard in the Non-Renewable Resources sector is eight, and 76 percent of the suggested accounting metrics are quantitative.  

"The Non-Renewable Resources sector faces distinct risks, such as increased regulatory pressure due to carbon emissions and the need for a culture of safety and emergency preparedness. Conversely the sector faces unique opportunities stemming from product innovation and maintaining positive relations with key stakeholders such as communities directly affected by their activities." says Dr. Jean Rogers, the Founder and CEO of SASB. "SASB standards help companies manage, and investors evaluate, the increasingly important non-financial risks and opportunities relevant to this sector."

SASB's standards development process includes evidence-based research, multi-stakeholder industry working groups, a 90 day public comment period, and review by an independent Standards Council. The working groups for the Non-Renewable Resources sector— which included 221 registrants— represented publicly traded companies with more than $2 trillion market capital and investment firms with more than $3.3 trillion in assets under management. A full list of working group members 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.   

The Non-Renewable Resources sector is the fourth set of industry standards released by SASB to date, bringing the total standards produced to date to 27 industries and completing 40 percent of the work to create a complete set of industry standards pertaining to material sustainability factors for use by the capital markets. This sector follows releases for the Health Care, Financials, and Technology and Communications sectors.  By 2016 SASB will have released standards for 10 sectors covering more than 80 industries. View the full schedule of SASB's standards development process here.

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. The Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, and Mary Schapiro, former SEC chairman, serve as chair and vice chair (respectively) of SASB's Board of Directors. More than 1,600 individuals representing $17T assets under management and $8T 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]

SOURCE Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)