Industry Comparison

Select Language
Current language: English (2023)

You are viewing information about the following Industries:

  • Engineering & Construction Services The Engineering & Construction Services industry provides engineering, construction, design, consulting, contracting and other related services that support various building and infrastructure projects. The industry has four major segments: engineering services, infrastructure construction, non-residential building construction, and building subcontractors and construction-related professional services. The infrastructure construction segment includes entities that design or build infrastructure projects such as power plants, dams, oil and gas pipelines, refineries, highways, bridges, tunnels, railways, ports, airports, waste treatment plants, water networks and stadiums. The non-residential building construction segment includes entities that design or build industrial and commercial facilities such as factories, warehouses, data centres, offices, hotels, hospitals, universities and retail spaces such as shopping centres. The engineering services segment includes entities that provide specialised architectural and engineering services such as design and development of feasibility studies for many of the project types listed above. Finally, the building subcontractors and other construction-related professional services segment includes smaller entities that provide ancillary services such as carpentry, electrical, plumbing, painting, waterproofing, landscaping, interior design and building inspection. The industry’s customers include infrastructure owners and developers in the public and private sectors. Large entities in this industry operate and generate revenue globally and typically operate in more than one segment.
      Remove
  • Investment Banking & Brokerage Investment Banking & Brokerage industry entities perform a wide range of functions in the capital markets, including raising and allocating capital and providing market-making and advisory services for corporations, financial institutions, governments and high net-worth individuals. Specific activities include financial advisory and securities underwriting services conducted on a fee basis; securities and commodities brokerage activities, which involve buying and selling securities or commodities contracts and options on a commission or fee basis; and trading and principal investment activities, which involve the buying and selling of equities, fixed income, currencies, commodities and other securities for client-driven and proprietary trading. Investment banks also originate and securitise loans for infrastructure and other projects. Entities in the industry generate revenues from global markets and, therefore, are exposed to various regulatory regimes. The industry continues to face regulatory pressure to reform and disclose aspects of operations that present systemic risks. Specifically, entities are facing new capital requirements, stress testing, limits on proprietary trading and increased scrutiny over compensation practices.
      Remove

Relevant Issues for both Industries (7 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.
  • Engineering & Construction Services Remove
    Access Standard
    • Ecological Impacts The category addresses management of the company’s impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity through activities including, but not limited to, land use for exploration, natural resource extraction, and cultivation, as well as project development, construction, and siting. The impacts include, but are not limited to, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, and deforestation at all stages – planning, land acquisition, permitting, development, operations, and site remediation. The category does not cover impacts of climate change on ecosystems and biodiversity.
      • Environmental Impacts of Project Development Infrastructure construction projects improve economic and social development; however, they also may pose risks to the local environment and surrounding communities. Industry activities can disrupt local ecosystems through biodiversity impacts, air emissions, water discharges, natural resource consumption, waste generation and hazardous chemicals use. Construction entities perform clearing, grading and excavation activities and may generate harmful waste during project construction. Effectively assessing environmental impacts before construction may mitigate unforeseen issues that may increase operational expenses and capital costs. In some cases, environmental concerns or local community pushback may result in project delays and, in extreme cases, project cancellations, which may affect an entity’s profitability and growth opportunities. Failure to comply with environmental regulations during construction may result in costly fines and remediation costs, and it can damage an entity’s reputation. Environmental impact assessments can provide an understanding of a project’s potential environmental impacts and necessary mitigation activities before it begins. Likewise, proper management of environmental risks during project construction may reduce regulatory oversight or community pushback. By assessing environmental considerations before project initiation, as well as continuing to evaluate them during project development, engineering and construction entities may be prepared to mitigate potential environmental issues and the associated financial risks that may occur, while also establishing a competitive advantage for obtaining new contracts with prospective clients.
    • Product Quality & Safety The category addresses issues involving unintended characteristics of products sold or services provided that may create health or safety risks to end-users. It addresses a company’s ability to offer manufactured products and/or services that meet customer expectations with respect to their health and safety characteristics. It includes, but is not limited to, issues involving liability, management of recalls and market withdrawals, product testing, and chemicals/content/ingredient management in products.
      • Structural Integrity & Safety Whether providing engineering, design, architectural, consulting, inspection, construction or maintenance services, entities in this industry have a professional responsibility to ensure the safety and integrity of their work. Errors or inadequate quality in the project design phase and construction of buildings or infrastructure may result in significant personal injury, loss of property value and economic harm. Entities that manage structural integrity and safety poorly may incur incremental costs because of redesign or repair work and legal liabilities, as well as reputational damage that could hurt growth prospects. Moreover, when designing and constructing buildings or infrastructure, entities in the industry increasingly must contemplate potential climate change impacts, which may affect the project’s structural integrity and public safety. Compliance with minimum applicable codes and standards may not be enough to maintain and grow reputational value (or even mitigate legal liabilities) in some circumstances, especially if the frequency and severity of climate-change-related events increases as expected. Meeting or exceeding new industry quality standards, and setting up internal control procedures to identify and fix potential design issues, including those resulting from climate risks, are practices that may help entities reduce these risks.
    • 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 Construction, maintenance and repair services and other on-site activities require substantial manual labour. Fatality and injury rates in the Engineering & Construction Services industry are high compared with those in other industries because of the workforce’s exposure to powered haulage and heavy machinery accidents, fall accidents, exposure to hazardous chemicals, and other unique and potentially dangerous situations. Additionally, temporary workers may be at a higher risk because of a lack of training or industry experience. Failing to protect worker health and safety can result in fines and penalties; serious incidents may result in acute, one-time extraordinary expenses and contingent liabilities from legal or regulatory actions. In addition, health and safety incidents may result in project delays and downtime that increase project costs and decrease profitability. Entities that seek to train both permanent and temporary employees professionally and build a strong safety culture may reduce their risk profile while potentially gaining a competitive advantage in new project bids and proposals because of good workforce health and safety statistics.
    • Employee Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion The category addresses a company’s ability to ensure that its culture and hiring and promotion practices embrace the building of a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the makeup of local talent pools and its customer base. It addresses the issues of discriminatory practices on the bases of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and other factors.
      None
    • 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.
      • Lifecycle Impacts of Buildings & Infrastructure Buildings and major infrastructure projects are among the largest users of natural resources in the economy; during construction, these materials include iron and steel products, cement, concrete, bricks, drywall, wallboards, glass, insulation, fixtures, doors, and cabinetry, among others. Once completed, and during their daily use, these projects often consume significant amounts of resources in the form of energy and water (for a discussion on direct environmental impacts from project construction see the Environmental Impacts of Project Development topic). Therefore, the sourcing of construction materials and the everyday use of buildings and infrastructure may contribute to direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, global or local resource constraints, water stress and negative human health outcomes. Client and regulatory pressures to develop a sustainable built environment are contributing to the growth of markets intended to reduce the lifecycle impacts of buildings and infrastructure projects. In response, various international sustainable building and infrastructure certification schemes assess, among other aspects, a project’s use-phase energy and water efficiency, impacts on human health, and the use of sustainable construction and building materials. As a result, various opportunities are being created for industries in the value chain—from suppliers that can provide such materials, to entities in the Engineering & Construction Services industry that can provide sustainability-oriented project design, consulting and construction services. Such services can provide a competitive advantage and revenue growth opportunities as client demand for economically advantageous sustainable projects increases and related regulations evolve. Entities unable to effectively integrate such considerations into their services may lose market share in the long term.
      • Climate Impacts of Business Mix Engineering & Construction Services industry clients may be exposed to potentially disruptive climate regulation as well as those that mitigate climate change. Some types of construction projects are significant climate change contributors because of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitted during their use phase. Projects that may contribute to global GHG emissions include those in extractive industries, as well as large buildings. Whereas some infrastructure projects, such as renewable energy projects, are designed to reduce GHG emissions, many types of projects present trade-offs. Mass transit systems, for example, may contribute to GHG emissions while reducing net emissions once the benefits offered by the system are factored. Several entities in the industry generate a substantial share of revenue and profits from clients in carbon-intensive industries and whose future capital investments may be at risk because of evolving climate regulations. Downside risks may manifest through project delays, cancellations and diminished long-term revenue growth opportunities. On the other hand, entities that specialise in infrastructure projects that contribute to GHG mitigation could develop competitive advantages as they continue to focus on these growing markets. As the industry and its customers continue to operate within an uncertain business environment and face increasing environmental and regulatory requirements, assessing and communicating the risks and opportunities stemming from climate change that are embedded in an entity’s backlog and future business prospects may help investors in assessing the overall business impact of climate change.
    • 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.
      • Business Ethics Entities in the industry face risks associated with bribery, corruption and anti-competitive practices. Several factors contribute to these risks, including global operations, managing many local agents and subcontractors, project financing and project permitting complexity, the magnitude of the contracts involved in building large infrastructure projects, and the competitive process to secure contracts with private and public entities. Ethical breaches may result in regulatory authority investigations, as well as large fines, settlement costs and damaged reputations. Such breaches may include violations of anti-bribery laws, such as paying government officials to gain project contracts. They also may include unethical bidding practices, such as complementary bidding (for example, submitting an artificially high or otherwise unacceptable bid for a contract that a bidder does not intend to win) and bid-pooling (for example, coordinating to split contracts and ensure each bidder is awarded a specific amount of work). Moreover, entities with poor track records may be barred from future projects, resulting in lost revenue. Developing an ethical culture through employee training, effective governance structures and internal controls is critical for entities to mitigate business ethics risks.
    • Systemic Risk Management The category addresses the company’s contributions to or management of systemic risks resulting from large-scale weakening or collapse of systems upon which the economy and society depend. This includes financial systems, natural resource systems, and technological systems. It addresses the mechanisms a company has in place to reduce its contributions to systemic risks and to improve safeguards that may mitigate the impacts of systemic failure. For financial institutions, the category also captures the company’s ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress and meet stricter regulatory requirements related to the complexity and interconnectedness of companies in the industry.
      None
  • Investment Banking & Brokerage Remove
    Access Standard
    • Ecological Impacts The category addresses management of the company’s impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity through activities including, but not limited to, land use for exploration, natural resource extraction, and cultivation, as well as project development, construction, and siting. The impacts include, but are not limited to, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, and deforestation at all stages – planning, land acquisition, permitting, development, operations, and site remediation. The category does not cover impacts of climate change on ecosystems and biodiversity.
      None
    • Product Quality & Safety The category addresses issues involving unintended characteristics of products sold or services provided that may create health or safety risks to end-users. It addresses a company’s ability to offer manufactured products and/or services that meet customer expectations with respect to their health and safety characteristics. It includes, but is not limited to, issues involving liability, management of recalls and market withdrawals, product testing, and chemicals/content/ingredient management in 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.
      None
    • Employee Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion The category addresses a company’s ability to ensure that its culture and hiring and promotion practices embrace the building of a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the makeup of local talent pools and its customer base. It addresses the issues of discriminatory practices on the bases of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and other factors.
      • Employee Diversity & Inclusion Entities in the Investment Banking & Brokerage industry face significant competition for skilled employees. As the industry continues to undergo rapid innovation through the introduction of more complex financial products and computerised algorithmic and high-frequency trading, material concerns such as profitability are more likely to determine the ability of entities to attract and retain skilled employees. By ensuring gender and racial diversity throughout the organisation, entities may expand their candidate pool, which may reduce hiring costs and improve operational efficiency. Evidence also suggests that entities with more diverse groups of employees may reduce risk-taking among employees involved in risk-prone trading activities (for example, trading), which may reduce the entity’s overall risk exposure. Entities with more diverse workforces may, therefore, be better able to attract skilled labour, adapt to advancements in technology and safeguard employee well-being.
    • 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.
      • Incorporation of Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors in Investment Banking & Brokerage Activities Environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors may have material impacts on the entities assets and projects across a range of industries to which investment banks provide services or in which they invest. Therefore, by accounting for these factors in underwriting, advisory, investing and lending activities, investment banks may manage significant positive and negative environmental and social externalities effectively. The potential for both value creation and loss associated with ESG factors suggests that investment banking and brokerage entities have a responsibility to shareholders and clients to consider these factors when analysing and valuing core products, including sell-side research, advisory services, origination, underwriting and principal transactions. Investment banking and brokerage entities that fail to manage these risks and opportunities effectively may expose themselves to increased reputational and financial risks. Appropriately pricing ESG risks may reduce investment banks’ financial risk exposure, help generate additional revenue or open new market opportunities. To help investors better understand how entities in the industry manage these issues, investment banks should disclose how they incorporate ESG factors in their core products and services.
    • 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.
      • Business Ethics The regulatory environment surrounding the Investment Banking & Brokerage industry continues to evolve internationally. Entities must adhere to a complex and often inconsistent set of rules relating to performance and conduct, as well as provide disclosure on issues including insider trading, antitrust behaviour, price fixing and market manipulation. Entities are subject to strict legal requirements against tax evasion, fraud, money laundering and corrupt practices. In some jurisdictions, enhanced rewards for whistle-blowers may increase the number of complaints brought to regulators. Entities that ensure regulatory compliance through robust internal controls may build trust with clients, increase revenue and protect shareholder value by minimising losses incurred because of legal proceedings.
      • Professional Integrity The success of entities in the Investment Banking & Brokerage industry is dependent on cultivating client trust and loyalty. To ensure long-term, mutually beneficial relationships, entities must provide services that satisfy the highest professional standards, which means taking careful measures to avoid conflicts of interest, misrepresentation and negligence. Professional integrity also means following a code of ethics with respect to transparency and disclosure. These measures are important both for preserving an entity’s licence to operate, as well as for attracting and retaining clients. Failure to meet professional standards may lead to negative consequences such as legal penalties or reputational damage, harming the entity’s clients as well as its shareholders. To maintain professional integrity, entities must ensure employees are trained in, and committed to adhering to, applicable financial industry regulations. A description of management’s approach to assuring professional integrity may help investors understand risk exposure and processes in place to avoid misconduct. Disclosure of the entity’s amount of legal and regulatory fines and settlements may provide investors and stakeholders with more transparent information regarding which financial institutions are adhering to regulatory norms.
    • Systemic Risk Management The category addresses the company’s contributions to or management of systemic risks resulting from large-scale weakening or collapse of systems upon which the economy and society depend. This includes financial systems, natural resource systems, and technological systems. It addresses the mechanisms a company has in place to reduce its contributions to systemic risks and to improve safeguards that may mitigate the impacts of systemic failure. For financial institutions, the category also captures the company’s ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress and meet stricter regulatory requirements related to the complexity and interconnectedness of companies in the industry.
      • Systemic Risk Management Investment Banking & Brokerage entities that fail to manage risks to capital effectively may suffer significant value losses to their financial assets while increasing liabilities. Because of the interconnectedness of the global financial system, these failures can contribute to significant market disruption and financial crises. This systemic nature of risk has become a central concern for regulators. As a result, many jurisdictions require that banks undergo supervised stress tests to evaluate whether the entity has sufficient capital and liquidity to absorb losses, continue operations and meet obligations in adverse economic and financial conditions. Failure to meet regulatory requirements may lead to penalties and substantially increased future compliance costs. Investment banks should improve their disclosures by measuring how well they can absorb shocks arising from systemic stresses to demonstrate how risks associated with their size, complexity, interconnectedness, substitutability and cross-jurisdictional activity are being managed. Entities that commit to enhanced disclosures may experience improved investor and shareholder confidence, potentially leading to increased revenues.
      • Employee Incentives & Risk-taking Variations in employee compensation structures in the Investment Banking & Brokerage industry may incentivise employees to focus on short- or long-term entity performance. Structures that emphasise short-term performance may encourage excessive risk-taking, with adverse implications for long-term corporate value. Various financial crises in recent decades have increased regulatory and shareholder scrutiny towards excessive risk-taking behaviour. Enhanced disclosure of employee compensation, focusing on performance metrics and variable remuneration, policies regarding clawback provisions, supervision, control and validation of traders’ pricing of Level 3 assets may provide investors with a better understanding of how entities are preserving corporate value by prioritising long-term growth over short-term reward.

Select up to 4 industries

Current Industries:
Engineering & Construction Services
|
Investment Banking & Brokerage
Financials
Infrastructure
Consumer Goods
Extractives & Minerals Processing
Food & Beverage
Health Care
Renewable Resources & Alternative Energy
Resource Transformation
Services
Technology & Communications
Transportation