Industry Comparison

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Current language: English (2023)

You are viewing information about the following Industries:

  • Oil & Gas – Refining & Marketing Oil & Gas - Refining & Marketing (R&M) entities refine petroleum products, market oil and gas products, or operate gas stations, all of which comprise the downstream operations of the oil and gas value chain. The types of refinery products and crude oil inputs influence the complexity of the refining process used, with varied expenditure needs and intensity of environmental and social impacts.
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  • Casinos & Gaming Publicly held casinos and gaming entities operate gambling facilities or platforms, including brick-and-mortar casinos, riverboat casinos, online gambling websites and racetracks. The industry is characterised by intense regulatory oversight, which is the main barrier to entry for new operators. Industry regulation varies significantly worldwide.
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Relevant Issues for both Industries (12 of 26)

Why are some issues greyed out? The SASB Standards vary by industry based on the different sustainability-related risks and opportunities within an industry. The issues in grey were not identified during the standard-setting process as the most likely to be useful to investors, so they are not included in the Standard. Over time, as the ISSB continues to receive market feedback, some issues may be added or removed from the Standard. Each company determines which sustainability-related risks and opportunities are relevant to its business. The Standard is designed for the typical company in an industry, but individual companies may choose to report on different sustainability-related risks and opportunities based on their unique business model.

Disclosure Topics

What is the relationship between General Issue Category and Disclosure Topics? The General Issue Category is an industry-agnostic version of the Disclosure Topics that appear in each SASB Standard. Disclosure topics represent the industry-specific impacts of General Issue Categories. The industry-specific Disclosure Topics ensure each SASB Standard is tailored to the industry, while the General Issue Categories enable comparability across industries. For example, Health & Nutrition is a disclosure topic in the Non-Alcoholic Beverages industry, representing an industry-specific measure of the general issue of Customer Welfare. The issue of Customer Welfare, however, manifests as the Counterfeit Drugs disclosure topic in the Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals industry.
  • Oil & Gas – Refining & Marketing Remove
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    • GHG Emissions The category addresses direct (Scope 1) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that a company generates through its operations. This includes GHG emissions from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes), whether a result of combustion of fuel or non-combusted direct releases during activities such as natural resource extraction, power generation, land use, or biogenic processes. The category further includes management of regulatory risks, environmental compliance, and reputational risks and opportunities, as they related to direct GHG emissions. The seven GHGs covered under the Kyoto Protocol are included within the category—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).
      • Greenhouse Gas Emissions Refining & Marketing (R&M) operations generate significant direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a variety of sources. Emissions primarily consist of carbon dioxide and methane from stationary fossil fuel combustion for energy supply. Energy costs are a significant share of refinery operating costs. GHGs also are released from process emissions, fugitive emissions resulting from leaks, emissions from venting and flaring, and from non-routine events such as equipment maintenance. The energy intensity of production, and therefore the GHG emissions intensity, can vary significantly depending on the type of crude oil feedstock used and refined product specifications. Entities that cost-effectively reduce GHG emissions from their operations may capture operational efficiencies. Such reductions also may mitigate the effects of increased fuel costs from regulations that limit—or put a price on—GHG emissions.
    • Air Quality The category addresses management of air quality impacts resulting from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes) as well as industrial emissions. Relevant airborne pollutants include, but are not limited to, oxides of nitrogen (NOx), oxides of sulfur (SOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), heavy metals, particulate matter, and chlorofluorocarbons. The category does not include GHG emissions, which are addressed in a separate category.
      • Air Quality Non-greenhouse gas (GHG) air emissions from Refining & Marketing (R&M) operations include air pollutants, which can create significant and localised environmental or health risks. Specific emissions of concern include sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, hydrogen sulphide, particulate matter and VOCs. Releases occur from stationary combustion sources, storage vessels, flares and equipment leaks, and may also occur because of accidents. Human health impacts and financial consequences may be exacerbated the closer a facility is to population centres. Active management of the issue—through technological and process improvements—may allow entities to mitigate the effect of regulations and benefit from operational efficiencies that could result in reduced costs.
    • Energy Management The category addresses environmental impacts associated with energy consumption. It addresses the company’s management of energy in manufacturing and/or for provision of products and services derived from utility providers (grid energy) not owned or controlled by the company. More specifically, it includes management of energy efficiency and intensity, energy mix, as well as grid reliance. Upstream (e.g., suppliers) and downstream (e.g., product use) energy use is not included in the scope.
      None
    • Water & Wastewater Management The category addresses a company’s water use, water consumption, wastewater generation, and other impacts of operations on water resources, which may be influenced by regional differences in the availability and quality of and competition for water resources. More specifically, it addresses management strategies including, but not limited to, water efficiency, intensity, and recycling. Lastly, the category also addresses management of wastewater treatment and discharge, including groundwater and aquifer pollution.
      • Water Management Refineries can use large quantities of water depending on their size and refining process complexity. This water use exposes them to the risk of water scarcity, depending on their location, and related costs. Extraction of water from water-stressed regions or water contamination also may create tensions with local communities. Refinery operations require wastewater treatment and disposal, often via on-site wastewater treatment plants before discharge. Reducing water use and contamination through recycling and other water management strategies may permit entities to capture operational efficiencies and reduce operating costs. They also could minimise regulatory, water supply shortages and community-related disruptions on operations.
    • Waste & Hazardous Materials Management The category addresses environmental issues associated with hazardous and non-hazardous waste generated by companies. It addresses a company’s management of solid wastes in manufacturing, agriculture, and other industrial processes. It covers treatment, handling, storage, disposal, and regulatory compliance. The category does not cover emissions to air or wastewater nor does it cover waste from end-of-life of products, which are addressed in separate categories.
      • Hazardous Materials Management As a by-product of their operations, Refining & Marketing (R&M) entities generate various forms of waste derived from the processing of petroleum products. Many of these substances are hazardous to human health and the environment and may be subject to regulation. Remediation of inactive or decommissioned sites may take many years to complete, and entities may accrue liabilities for past operations. Hazardous substance releases from underground storage tanks (USTs) used by refining facilities and gas stations can affect land redevelopment for abandoned or closed facilities. Spills and releases during operations can result in groundwater contamination and other negative impacts. R&M entities that reduce and recycle hazardous waste streams, as well as those that have effective and prompt clean-up and remediation measures in place for normal operations and decommissioned facilities, may reduce regulatory and litigation risks and associated costs.
    • Customer Welfare The category addresses customer welfare concerns over issues including, but not limited to, health and nutrition of foods and beverages, antibiotic use in animal production, and management of controlled substances. The category addresses the company’s ability to provide consumers with manufactured products and services that are aligned with societal expectations. It does not include issues directly related to quality and safety malfunctions of manufactured products and services, but instead addresses qualities inherent to the design and delivery of products and services where customer welfare may be in question. The scope of the category also captures companies’ ability to prevent counterfeit products.
      None
    • Employee Health & Safety The category addresses a company’s ability to create and maintain a safe and healthy workplace environment that is free of injuries, fatalities, and illness (both chronic and acute). It is traditionally accomplished through implementing safety management plans, developing training requirements for employees and contractors, and conducting regular audits of their own practices as well as those of their subcontractors. The category further captures how companies ensure physical and mental health of workforce through technology, training, corporate culture, regulatory compliance, monitoring and testing, and personal protective equipment.
      • Workforce Health & Safety Hazards associated with the operations of entities in the Refining & Marketing (R&M) industry may present risks to employee health and safety. Such hazards include the handling and processing of hydrocarbons, frequently at high temperatures and pressures during refining operations. Accidents or inadvertent exposures to chemicals and other hazards such as heat or noise may result in fatalities, severe injuries or illnesses. Releases of hydrocarbons or other hazardous substances resulting from accidents or leaks also can have negative consequences for neighbouring communities. An entity’s ability to protect employee health and safety, and to create a culture of safety and well-being among employees at all levels, can help prevent accidents, mitigate costs and operational downtime, and enhance workforce productivity.
    • Product Design & Lifecycle Management The category addresses incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in characteristics of products and services provided or sold by the company. It includes, but is not limited to, managing the lifecycle impacts of products and services, such as those related to packaging, distribution, use-phase resource intensity, and other environmental and social externalities that may occur during their use-phase or at the end of life. The category captures a company’s ability to address customer and societal demand for more sustainable products and services as well as to meet evolving environmental and social regulation. It does not address direct environmental or social impacts of the company’s operations nor does it address health and safety risks to consumers from product use, which are covered in other categories.
      • Product Specifications & Clean Fuel Blends Some regulatory jurisdictions have implemented product specifications and renewable fuel blends, which pose significant compliance and operational risks for Refining & Marketing (R&M) entities. Entities may face long-term reductions in revenue from fossil fuel-based products and services because of GHG mitigation policies such as renewable fuel mandates or standards, as well as competition from non-fossil fuel products. To ensure regulatory compliance and position themselves for long-term competitiveness, some entities are investing in clean fuel production or purchasing ethanol and other renewable biofuels. Advanced biofuels and fuel technologies have lower lifecycle impacts than traditional biofuels, and they can be used to minimise future regulatory risks and public pressure. Although short-term costs to find commercially viable technologies can be significant, investments in R&D for such technologies could serve to support R&M entities’ long-term profitability.
    • Business Ethics The category addresses the company’s approach to managing risks and opportunities surrounding ethical conduct of business, including fraud, corruption, bribery and facilitation payments, fiduciary responsibilities, and other behaviour that may have an ethical component. This includes sensitivity to business norms and standards as they shift over time, jurisdiction, and culture. It addresses the company’s ability to provide services that satisfy the highest professional and ethical standards of the industry, which means to avoid conflicts of interest, misrepresentation, bias, and negligence through training employees adequately and implementing policies and procedures to ensure employees provide services free from bias and error.
      None
    • Competitive Behaviour The category covers social issues associated with existence of monopolies, which may include, but are not limited to, excessive prices, poor quality of service, and inefficiencies. It addresses a company’s management of legal and social expectation around monopolistic and anti-competitive practices, including issues related to bargaining power, collusion, price fixing or manipulation, and protection of patents and intellectual property (IP).
      • Pricing Integrity & Transparency Regulators are responsible for overseeing issues related to pricing integrity and transparency, which includes the potential for market manipulation by oil and gas entities, including Refining & Marketing (R&M) entities. Regulatory agencies focusing on refineries may investigate various competitive factors, including capacity utilisation and refinery maintenance decisions, product supply decisions, product margins, and capital planning, creating uncertainty regarding future enforcement. The focus of enforcement actions also may include prices reported to price index publishers, as well as potential price distortions through trading positions in physical transactions, and through swaps, futures and derivatives. Maintaining market integrity and ensuring transparency in product pricing can therefore reduce regulatory risks and liabilities for R&M entities and protect consumers from unfair pricing.
    • Management of the Legal & Regulatory Environment The category addresses a company’s approach to engaging with regulators in cases where conflicting corporate and public interests may have the potential for long-term adverse direct or indirect environmental and social impacts. The category addresses a company’s level of reliance upon regulatory policy or monetary incentives (such as subsidies and taxes), actions to influence industry policy (such as through lobbying), overall reliance on a favorable regulatory environment for business competitiveness, and ability to comply with relevant regulations. It may relate to the alignment of management and investor views of regulatory engagement and compliance at large.
      • Management of the Legal & Regulatory Environment The Refining & Marketing (R&M) industry is subject to numerous sustainability-related regulations and an often rapidly changing regulatory environment. Changes to the legal and regulatory environment may result in material effects on shareholder value. Entities in the industry regularly participate in the regulatory and legislative process on a wide variety of environmental and societal issues. Such engagement can result from entities seeking to ensure industry views are represented in the development of regulations affecting the industry as well as to represent shareholder interests. At the same time, such engagement to influence environmental laws and regulations may adversely affect entities’ reputations and ultimately affect an entity’s social licence to operate.
    • Critical Incident Risk Management The category addresses the company’s use of management systems and scenario planning to identify, understand, and prevent or minimize the occurrence of low-probability, high-impact accidents and emergencies with significant potential environmental and social externalities. It relates to the culture of safety at a company, its relevant safety management systems and technological controls, the potential human, environmental, and social implications of such events occurring, and the long-term effects to an organization, its workers, and society should these events occur.
      • Critical Incident Risk Management The operations of Refining & Marketing (R&M) entities are often characterised by a high number of hazards, including the handling of flammable, volatile substances, the use of highly reactive chemicals, and the processing of fluids at high temperature and pressure. Accidental releases of hydrocarbons or other hazardous substances can have significant consequences for an entity’s workforce, as well as external social and environmental consequences. In addition to effective process safety management practices, entities frequently prioritise developing a culture of safety to reduce the probability that accidents and other health and safety incidents will occur. If accidents and other emergencies do occur, entities with a strong safety culture often can detect and respond effectively to such incidents. A culture that engages and empowers employees and contractors to work with management to safeguard their own health, safety and well-being and prevent accidents may help entities reduce production downtime, mitigate costs, ensure workforce productivity and maintain their licence to operate.
  • Casinos & Gaming Remove
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    • GHG Emissions The category addresses direct (Scope 1) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that a company generates through its operations. This includes GHG emissions from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes), whether a result of combustion of fuel or non-combusted direct releases during activities such as natural resource extraction, power generation, land use, or biogenic processes. The category further includes management of regulatory risks, environmental compliance, and reputational risks and opportunities, as they related to direct GHG emissions. The seven GHGs covered under the Kyoto Protocol are included within the category—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).
      None
    • Air Quality The category addresses management of air quality impacts resulting from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes) as well as industrial emissions. Relevant airborne pollutants include, but are not limited to, oxides of nitrogen (NOx), oxides of sulfur (SOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), heavy metals, particulate matter, and chlorofluorocarbons. The category does not include GHG emissions, which are addressed in a separate category.
      None
    • Energy Management The category addresses environmental impacts associated with energy consumption. It addresses the company’s management of energy in manufacturing and/or for provision of products and services derived from utility providers (grid energy) not owned or controlled by the company. More specifically, it includes management of energy efficiency and intensity, energy mix, as well as grid reliance. Upstream (e.g., suppliers) and downstream (e.g., product use) energy use is not included in the scope.
      • Energy Management With many facilities open 24 hours a day, the Casinos & Gaming industry requires a large amount of energy to operate. Casino facilities often have few windows and therefore rely on their buildings’ mechanical systems for heating, ventilation, air-conditioning (HVAC) and lighting. Fossil fuel-based energy production and consumption contribute to significant environmental impacts, including climate change and pollution, and have the potential to impact casino entities’ results of operations. Entities that rely on electricity consumption for their operations increasingly must manage energy efficiency as well as energy availability, including the risks and opportunities associated with energy sourcing from fossil fuels or from renewable and alternative energy sources.
    • Water & Wastewater Management The category addresses a company’s water use, water consumption, wastewater generation, and other impacts of operations on water resources, which may be influenced by regional differences in the availability and quality of and competition for water resources. More specifically, it addresses management strategies including, but not limited to, water efficiency, intensity, and recycling. Lastly, the category also addresses management of wastewater treatment and discharge, including groundwater and aquifer pollution.
      None
    • Waste & Hazardous Materials Management The category addresses environmental issues associated with hazardous and non-hazardous waste generated by companies. It addresses a company’s management of solid wastes in manufacturing, agriculture, and other industrial processes. It covers treatment, handling, storage, disposal, and regulatory compliance. The category does not cover emissions to air or wastewater nor does it cover waste from end-of-life of products, which are addressed in separate categories.
      None
    • Customer Welfare The category addresses customer welfare concerns over issues including, but not limited to, health and nutrition of foods and beverages, antibiotic use in animal production, and management of controlled substances. The category addresses the company’s ability to provide consumers with manufactured products and services that are aligned with societal expectations. It does not include issues directly related to quality and safety malfunctions of manufactured products and services, but instead addresses qualities inherent to the design and delivery of products and services where customer welfare may be in question. The scope of the category also captures companies’ ability to prevent counterfeit products.
      • Responsible Gaming Although the main purpose of gambling is entertainment, the industry faces a negative perception often related to pathological gambling. In addition to pathological gambling, which is a progressive addiction characterised by increasing preoccupation with gambling, customers also may experience problem gambling, a less severe form of pathological gambling. Although casinos do not cause problem gambling, they provide opportunities to gamble and may earn disproportionately greater revenue from pathological and problem gamblers. Responsible gambling entities adopt industry best practices to mitigate negative effects of problem gambling that may result from violations of self-exclusion lists, irresponsible advertising, gambling by minors, or instances in which the entity has otherwise enabled gambling problems. Highly-publicised incidents related to pathological and problem gambling may damage entities’ reputations and result in regulatory curtailment of their licences to operate.
    • Employee Health & Safety The category addresses a company’s ability to create and maintain a safe and healthy workplace environment that is free of injuries, fatalities, and illness (both chronic and acute). It is traditionally accomplished through implementing safety management plans, developing training requirements for employees and contractors, and conducting regular audits of their own practices as well as those of their subcontractors. The category further captures how companies ensure physical and mental health of workforce through technology, training, corporate culture, regulatory compliance, monitoring and testing, and personal protective equipment.
      • Smoke-free Casinos Casino facilities are usually climate-controlled environments with internal air circulation, and they have a relatively high concentration of employees and customers. Although anti-smoking campaigns have helped some regions enact smoking bans for public places, many casinos remain exempt from such bans. Smoke exposes employees and customers to increased risks of heart attacks, cancers, and other illnesses. Studies have shown that casino dealers exposed to second-hand smoke have higher-than-average rates of respiratory illness. Entities that derive a significant portion of their revenue from smoking customers may be negatively affected by smoking bans. Alternatively, by creating smoke-free facilities, casino operators may attract more non-smoking patrons.
    • Product Design & Lifecycle Management The category addresses incorporation of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations in characteristics of products and services provided or sold by the company. It includes, but is not limited to, managing the lifecycle impacts of products and services, such as those related to packaging, distribution, use-phase resource intensity, and other environmental and social externalities that may occur during their use-phase or at the end of life. The category captures a company’s ability to address customer and societal demand for more sustainable products and services as well as to meet evolving environmental and social regulation. It does not address direct environmental or social impacts of the company’s operations nor does it address health and safety risks to consumers from product use, which are covered in other categories.
      None
    • Business Ethics The category addresses the company’s approach to managing risks and opportunities surrounding ethical conduct of business, including fraud, corruption, bribery and facilitation payments, fiduciary responsibilities, and other behaviour that may have an ethical component. This includes sensitivity to business norms and standards as they shift over time, jurisdiction, and culture. It addresses the company’s ability to provide services that satisfy the highest professional and ethical standards of the industry, which means to avoid conflicts of interest, misrepresentation, bias, and negligence through training employees adequately and implementing policies and procedures to ensure employees provide services free from bias and error.
      • Internal Controls on Money Laundering By the nature of its business, the Casinos & Gaming industry may be attractive to criminals seeking to launder money or disguise the origin of funds. Risk factors include customer anonymity, accessibility to multiple facilities and the large amount of cash transactions in each facility. Therefore, strict and robust internal controls are necessary for entities to prevent violations of reporting and money laundering regulations. Casino operators that fail to detect and prevent money laundering activities may be subjected to criminal investigations. Violations of anti-money laundering laws and regulations could result in criminal prosecution or substantial regulatory penalties.
    • Competitive Behaviour The category covers social issues associated with existence of monopolies, which may include, but are not limited to, excessive prices, poor quality of service, and inefficiencies. It addresses a company’s management of legal and social expectation around monopolistic and anti-competitive practices, including issues related to bargaining power, collusion, price fixing or manipulation, and protection of patents and intellectual property (IP).
      None
    • Management of the Legal & Regulatory Environment The category addresses a company’s approach to engaging with regulators in cases where conflicting corporate and public interests may have the potential for long-term adverse direct or indirect environmental and social impacts. The category addresses a company’s level of reliance upon regulatory policy or monetary incentives (such as subsidies and taxes), actions to influence industry policy (such as through lobbying), overall reliance on a favorable regulatory environment for business competitiveness, and ability to comply with relevant regulations. It may relate to the alignment of management and investor views of regulatory engagement and compliance at large.
      None
    • Critical Incident Risk Management The category addresses the company’s use of management systems and scenario planning to identify, understand, and prevent or minimize the occurrence of low-probability, high-impact accidents and emergencies with significant potential environmental and social externalities. It relates to the culture of safety at a company, its relevant safety management systems and technological controls, the potential human, environmental, and social implications of such events occurring, and the long-term effects to an organization, its workers, and society should these events occur.
      None

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