SASB Releases Technical Agenda in Preparation of Exposure Draft Standards

SAN FRANCISCO, July 31, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB™) today announced the first official action of the inaugural SASB Standards Board (the SASB) with the release of the 2017 Technical Agenda, which was published on July 28. The 2017 Technical Agenda is the vehicle that sets the priorities and research areas for the SASB staff in maintaining its standards.

On June 29-30, 2017, the SASB convened for a public meeting to vote on and approve the items within its 2017 Technical Agenda. The approved items include those for which significant supporting evidence or market feedback was received, indicating that the change would improve the quality of the standard, including the materiality, cost-effectiveness, and/or decision-usefulness. Specifically, the need for changes arose from: 1) stakeholder feedback on the provisional standards; 2) regulatory or scientific advancement; and/or 3) identification and rationalization of cross-cutting topics that affect multiple industries or sectors.

The proposed changes are the result of SASB's rigorous standards development process in maintaining standards for 77 industries and 11 sectors within the Sustainability Industry Classification System™ (SICS™). In a recent six-month consultation period, 141 companies (along with 19 industry associations, representing hundreds of companies) and 38 institutional investors conducted 271 industry-level consultations on the provisional standards. To develop the provisional standards from 2012 through 2015, SASB convened industry working groups with 2,800 experts, affiliated with $23.4 trillion in assets under management and more than $11 trillion market capitalization (the participation breakdown was 31% corporate professionals, 31% investors, and 37% intermediaries).

"The SASB Standards Board is committed to evolving world class standards for sustainability-related matters that are responsive to market needs and reflect the material issues of our time. The industry working groups and the recent consultation period gave us tremendous insight into the needs of issuers and investors for comparable, cost-effective disclosures," says Dr. Jean Rogers, Founder of SASB and Chair of the SASB Standards Board. "We are one step closer to our goal of finalizing our standards and ensuring greater transparency in the capital markets."

Dr. Jeffrey Hales, Vice Chair of the SASB Standards Board, says: "The publication of the 2017 Technical Agenda represents a critical milestone in a much larger process, laid out in our Rules of Procedure and Conceptual Framework. A key component is SASB's commitment to continuing engagement and public comment periods. Standards that help public corporations disclose material, decision-useful information to investors are not created in a vacuum and can benefit from feedback from all types of stakeholders."

Cross-cutting items that have been addressed in the 2017 Technical Agenda include human capital management, cyber security, water risk, and climate risk. Specific to climate risk, SASB is integrating the recommendations of the recently released report by the G20 Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), as appropriate, within each industry where climate risk is a material factor.

For the 2017 Technical Agenda, the 248 items comprise changes to topics, metrics, and technical protocols. The changes within each sector are as follows:

These items will be further evaluated and, where deemed appropriate through due process, will be developed into specific proposed changes to the SASB standards and issued as an Exposure Draft. The proposed changes to the standards across all industries will be presented during a 90-day Public Comment Period, slated to begin in September 2017. This process will culminate in codification of the standards in Q1 2018 for use in SEC filings.

Moving forward, market feedback on implementation of the standards will be obtained through Sector Advisory Groups. The Sector Advisory Groups, to be formed in Q1 2018, will be standing advisory bodies comprising industry experts that will provide input, from an industry perspective, on emerging and evolving topics that may warrant changes to a SASB standard. Also, the SASB has already formed an Investor Advisory Group (IAG), which comprises 28 leading asset owners and asset managers with more than $20T in assets (including BlackRock, CalPERS, CalSTRS, and State Street Global Advisors) committed to improving the quality and comparability of sustainability-related disclosure. Moreover, the SASB staff will continue to focus its efforts on priority issues which were identified during its research and consultative period.

About SASB
Established in 2011, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) is an independent standards-setting organization dedicated to enhancing the efficiency of the capital markets by fostering high-quality disclosure of material sustainability information that meets investor needs. The mission of the SASB is to maintain sustainability accounting standards that help public corporations disclose material information to investors in SEC filings, such as the Forms 10-K, 20-F, and 40-F, in a cost-effective and decision-useful manner. SASB maintains standards for 77 industries across 11 sectors. SASB's mission is accomplished through a rigorous process that includes evidence-based research and broad, balanced stakeholder participation. The SASB Standards Board, appointed in 2017, comprises nine members with diverse backgrounds encompassing capital markets regulation and policy, investing, financial accounting, securities law, corporate finance, and sustainability matters. The Standards Board is responsible for setting the standards, maintaining technical agendas, responding to stakeholders, and proposing updates to the standards.  

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SOURCE Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

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