Materiality Finder

SASB Standards are designed to address sustainability factors that are applicable to the typical company within an industry. In some cases, they may:

• Include topics that, for certain companies, may not be financially material; and/or
• Not necessarily include every sustainability factor that is financially material to a reporting company.

SASB’s Standards Application Guidance recommends that when a company omits or modifies a SASB metric, it should disclose its rationale for doing so. Please note: Entities using the SASB Standards as part of their implementation of ISSB Standards should consider the relevant ISSB application guidance.

When choosing to include additional topics in its disclosure, a company should consider providing a narrative describing why the topic is important; reviewing other SASB industry standards in which the topic is covered to ensure performance metrics are well-aligned with those commonly in use.

For more information, see the “Understanding SASB Standards” section of the SASB Standards Implementation Primer.

There is broad support in global capital markets for all companies—regardless of their industry—to disclose their Scope 1, Scope 2 and (where feasible) Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. For this reason, IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures includes cross-industry disclosure requirements for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 GHG emissions (subject to an entity’s determination that information regarding those emissions is material). The approach to climate-related disclosure in the SASB Standards is different but not in conflict with such cross-industry reporting.

A subset of 22 SASB Standards include disclosure topics and metrics regarding direct (Scope 1) emissions because the SASB standard-setting process identified those industries as the most likely to face financial effects specifically related to their emissions. These effects may manifest as regulatory risks and shifts in consumer demand, which in turn affect costs and revenues.

For indirect emissions, SASB Standards capture the operational and/or strategic factors that give rise to such emissions. For the 35 industries that indirectly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions through significant use of purchased electricity (i.e., Scope 2), SASB Standards contain metrics related to understanding the amount, type (conventional or renewable) and source (self-generated or purchased) of energy.

For industries that indirectly contribute to greenhouse gas emissions upstream (e.g., from purchased materials processing and transportation), downstream (e.g., from distribution and use of products), or in other ways (e.g., from employee commuting and business travel)—in other words, Scope 3 emissions—SASB Standards recommend metrics directly related to performance in those areas. For more information on SASB’s approach to GHG emissions and related topics, see the SASB Implementation Supplement: Greenhouse Gas Emissions and SASB Standards and the SASB Climate Risk Technical Bulletin.

Providing sustainability disclosures using SASB Standards is a cost-effective way to provide decision-useful information to investors and puts companies in a prime position for implementing IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 when they are effective in 2024. A good place to start is reviewing the SASB Standard(s) for your industry (or industries) and the SASB Standards Implementation Primer. Additionally, SASB has provided a number of case studies and Q&As with reporting companies that may provide useful insights on getting started. Finally, it may be valuable to review the disclosures of other SASB Standards reporters in your industry.