Quick Guide: Key Sustainability Disclosure Regimes: SASB standards

SASB was founded as a non-profit organisation in 2011 to help businesses and investors identify industry-specific sustainability-related risks and opportunities. 

In 2018, SASB developed disclosure standards for 77 industries across 11 sectors. 

The SASB standards are geared toward providing decision-useful information to investors and so are based on financial materiality - as opposed to, for example, the Global Reporting Initiative (“GRI”) which is based on “impact materiality” or the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (“CSRD”) which is based on “double materiality”.

The SASB standards were originally developed for use in corporate filings to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). Although primarily developed for the US market, SASB is also used by a number of companies globally. As of December 2023, the SASB standards were applied by more than 3,200 companies in over 80 jurisdictions, including approximately 75% of the companies in the Global S&P 1200.

In June 2021, SASB and the International Integrated Reporting Council (“IIRC”), which was responsible for developing the Integrated Reporting Framework, merged into the Value Reporting Foundation (“VRF”). 

In November 2021, the IFRS Foundation established the International Sustainability Standards Board (“ISSB”) to develop a global baseline of sustainability disclosure standards to meet investors’ information needs. In 2022, the IFRS Foundation consolidated with the VRF and the Carbon Disclosure Standards Board (“CDSB”), as well as taking over responsibility for the work of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (“TCFD”). This went some way to reducing what was commonly known as the “ESG alphabet soup”. 

The global sustainability disclosure standards developed by the ISSB – IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 – include requirements to refer to and consider the applicability of the SASB standards. 

The ISSB is in the process of making changes to the SASB standards, primarily to make them easier to apply globally. 

Voluntary – the SASB standards now form part of the ISSB standards which are voluntary, although a number of jurisdictions are in the process of implementing the ISSB standards into national law. 

However, the SASB standards can still be used independently from the ISSB standards.

The SASB standards apply to 77 industries across the following 11 sectors:

• Consumer Goods
• Extractives & Minerals Processing
• Financials
• Food & Beverage
• Health Care
• Infrastructure
• Renewable Resources & Alternative Energy
• Resource Transformation 
• Services 
• Technology & Communications
• Transportation

The SASB standards include:

• industry descriptions;
• disclosure topics; 
• metrics; 
• technical protocols, which provide guidance on definitions, scope, implementation, and presentation of metrics; and 
• activity metrics, which quantify the scale of specific activities or operations by an entity

IFRS S1 includes a requirement to “refer to and consider the applicability of” the SASB standards, which cover 77 industries in 11 sectors. 

IFRS S2 includes a requirement to “refer to and consider the applicability of” the Industry-based Guidance on Implementing IFRS S2, which covers 68 industries in 11 sectors. This guidance was derived from, and is identical to, the climate-related content of the SASB standards. This is a non-mandatory appendix to IFRS S2.

The SASB standards and Industry-based Guidance on Implementing IFRS S2 are collectively referred to in the ISSB regime as the “ISSB industry-based guidance”. 

The ISSB industry-based guidance assists an entity in disclosing industry-specific information that is relevant to primary users because it sets out disclosure topics and metrics that will typically be applicable for an entity with the business model and associated activities of specific industries.

An entity decides which industry standards and disclosure topics are relevant to its business and which associated metrics to disclose. 

Although applying the ISSB industry-based guidance is not mandatory to assert compliance with ISSB standards, the guidance can serve as a useful means by which entities can meet the requirements in the ISSB standards.

If an entity determines the ISSB industry-based guidance is applicable and uses it to meet the requirements in ISSB standards, paragraph 59 of IFRS S1 requires the entity to disclose that fact and to disclose the industry for which it applied guidance in preparing the relevant disclosures.

The same financial materiality as the ISSB standards – namely, the ISSB standards are designed to meet the information needs of investors and so the standards have a financial materiality focus, meaning that reporting entities must disclose material information about any sustainability-related risks and opportunities that may affect the entity’s financial position in the short, medium and long term.

Under the ISSB standards, information is "material" if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence decisions that investors, lenders and other creditors make on the basis of those reports.

In December 2023, the ISSB published updates to the SASB standards to enhance their international applicability. The updates removed and replaced jurisdiction-specific references and definitions without substantially altering the structure or intent of the SASB standards.

In July 2025, the ISSB published for consultation two exposure drafts proposing amendments to the SASB standards and consequential amendments to the Industry-based Guidance on Implementing IFRS S2 (see here). This is the first time adopters of the ISSB standards have been given a chance to opine on the content of the SASB standards.

The proposed amendments:

• provide a comprehensive review of nine industries that were prioritised (all eight industries in the Extractives & Minerals Processing sector and the Processed Foods industry), with special attention to the international applicability of the SASB standards and improved alignment with other disclosure standards such as the GRI and the EU European Sustainability Reporting Standards (“ESRS”);
• align some metrics in a further 41 industries for topics such as Water Management and Workforce Health & Safety; and
• propose updates to the Industry-based Guidance on Implementing IFRS S2 (affecting the nine prioritised industries and 37 of the 41 industries) to maintain alignment with climate-related content in the SASB standards. 

The consultation closes on 30 November 2025 and the ISSB aims to issue the revised standards in 2026. 

In addition, the ISSB also plans to publish, before the end of 2025, exposure drafts of proposed enhancements for three further SASB standards: Electric Utilities & Power Generators and two SASB standards in the Food & Beverage sector. The ISSB will also consider in 2025 a further set of industries to prioritise for enhancements.

• SASB Standards Navigator - you will need to register for free access to the SASB standards, guidance and other materials
• Using ISSB Industry-based Guidance when applying ISSB Standards 
• Using the SASB Standards to meet the requirements in IFRS S1 
• IFRS S2 - Industry-based Guidance on implementing Climate-related Disclosures
• IFRS - ISSB proposes comprehensive review of priority SASB Standards and targeted amendments to others

• Quick Guide on ISSB standards
• Quick Guide on GRI standards