Industry Comparison

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Current language: English (2023)

You are viewing information about the following Industries:

  • Semiconductors Semiconductors industry entities design or manufacture semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, their raw materials and components, or capital equipment. Some entities in the industry provide outsourced manufacturing, assembly or other services for designers of semiconductor devices.
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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 (11 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.
  • Semiconductors 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 Entities in the Semiconductors industry generate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, particularly those from perfluorinated compounds, from semiconductor manufacturing operations. GHG emissions may create regulatory compliance costs and operating risks for semiconductors entities, although resulting financial effects may vary depending on the magnitude of emissions and the prevailing emissions regulations. Entities that cost-effectively manage GHG emissions through greater energy efficiency, the use of alternative chemicals or manufacturing process advances may benefit from improved operating efficiency and reduced regulatory risk.
    • 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 in Manufacturing Energy is a critical input for manufacturing semiconductor devices. The price of conventional grid electricity and volatility of fossil fuel prices may increase because of evolving climate change regulations and new incentives for energy efficiency and renewable energy, among other factors, while alternative energy sources become more cost-competitive. Decisions regarding energy sourcing and type, as well as alternative energy use, may create trade-offs related to the energy supply’s cost and reliability for operations. As industry innovation adds complexity to manufacturing processes, new technologies to manufacture semiconductors may consume more energy unless entities invest in the energy efficiency of their operations. The way an entity manages energy efficiency, reliance on different types of energy, the associated sustainability risks, and alternative energy source access may affect financial performance.
    • 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 Water is critical to the semiconductor production process, which requires significant volumes of ‘ultra-pure’ water for cleaning purposes, to avoid trace molecules from affecting product quality. As manufacturing becomes more complex, entities in the industry are discovering the importance of reducing ultra-pure water use. Water is becoming a scarce resource around the world, because of increasing consumption from population growth and rapid urbanisation, and reduced supplies because of climate change. Furthermore, water pollution in developing countries makes available water supplies unusable or expensive to treat. Without careful planning, water scarcity may result in higher supply costs, social tensions with local communities and governments, or loss of water access in water-scarce regions, thereby presenting a critical risk to production. Semiconductor entities that increase water use efficiency during manufacturing may maintain a lower risk profile and face reduced regulatory risks as local, regional and national environmental laws place increasing emphasis on resource conservation.
    • 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.
      • Waste Management Semiconductor manufacturing requires hazardous materials, many of which are subject to environmental, health and safety regulations, and generate harmful waste, which may be released into the environment in the form of water and air emissions, as well as solid waste. The handling and disposal of hazardous wastes produced during manufacturing may result in increased operating costs, capital expenditures, and in some instances, regulatory costs. Entities that reduce waste produced during manufacturing and ensure it is reused, recycled or disposed of appropriately may achieve a lower risk profile and face reduced regulatory risks as local, regional and national environmental laws place increasing emphasis on resource conservation and waste management.
    • 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 The long-term effects of chemical usage in semiconductor manufacturing on worker health is a major area of concern for the industry. Workers in fabrication facilities, particularly maintenance workers, are at risk of exposure to chemicals known to be hazardous to human health. Violations of health and safety standards may result in monetary penalties and additional costs of corrective actions, with effects on net profits and contingent liabilities. Furthermore, such violations also may result in non-monetary penalties and reputational impacts which may decrease revenues, as well as market share. Effective management of health and safety issues include implementing effective engineering controls, introducing less hazardous chemicals if possible or using smaller amounts, and seeking chemicals presenting the fewest risks to the workforce. In addition to protecting brand value, entities taking these measures may also protect themselves from adverse legal outcomes related to both regulated and unregulated hazardous substances.
    • 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.
      • Recruiting & Managing a Global & Skilled Workforce Employees are important contributors to value creation in the Semiconductors industry. Entities face competition and challenges in recruiting qualified employees globally, including electrical engineers, research scientists and process engineers. Compensation for such employees is a significant cost component for the industry. Semiconductors entities may improve their competitive positioning by establishing education, training and recruitment policies that develop and leverage the talents of skilled, global employees to meet their human capital needs. Such initiatives may help drive innovation and improve worker productivity, thereby improving access to new markets and possible new sources of revenue, while also creating a more engaged workforce and reducing employee turnover.
    • 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 Lifecycle Management As an increasing number of devices become connected to each other and to the internet, semiconductor entities face greater demand for products that increase computing power and decrease energy costs. Semiconductor machinery and device manufacturers may reduce the environmental and human health impacts of their products by increasing the energy-efficiency of equipment and chips and reducing the use of harmful materials in products. As consumer demand grows for energy-efficient devices that increase battery life, reduce heat output and decrease energy consumption, semiconductor manufacturers that satisfy these may gain a competitive advantage, driving revenue and market share growth. Entities also may benefit from reducing the use of toxic materials from chips destined for consumer devices, which has implications for the end-of-life management of electronic waste, an issue of growing legislative importance in many countries.
    • Materials Sourcing & Efficiency The category addresses issues related to the resilience of materials supply chains to impacts of climate change and other external environmental and social factors. It captures the impacts of such external factors on operational activity of suppliers, which can further affect availability and pricing of key resources. It addresses a company’s ability to manage these risks through product design, manufacturing, and end-of-life management, such as by using of recycled and renewable materials, reducing the use of key materials (dematerialization), maximizing resource efficiency in manufacturing, and making R&D investments in substitute materials. Additionally, companies can manage these issues by screening, selection, monitoring, and engagement with suppliers to ensure their resilience to external risks. It does not address issues associated with environmental and social externalities created by operational activity of individual suppliers, which is covered in a separate category.
      • Materials Sourcing Entities in the Semiconductors industry rely on numerous critical materials as important inputs for finished products. Many of these inputs have few or no available substitutes and often are sourced from only a few countries, many of which may be subject to geopolitical uncertainty. Other sustainability impacts related to climate change, land use, resource scarcity and conflict in regions where the industry’s supply chain operates are also increasingly shaping the industry’s ability to source materials. Additionally, increased competition for these materials because of growing global demand from other sectors may result in price increases and supply risks. The management of potential materials shortages, supply disruptions, price volatility and reputational risks is made more difficult by the practice of commonly sourcing materials from supply chains that often lack transparency. Failure to effectively manage this issue may constrain access to necessary materials, reduce margins, impair revenue growth or increase costs of capital.
    • 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).
      • Intellectual Property Protection & Competitive Behaviour Although intellectual property (IP) protection is inherent to the Semiconductors industry business model, entities’ IP practices may be a contentious social issue. IP protection can be an important driver of innovation, but some entities may also acquire and enforce patents and other IP protection to restrict competition, particularly if they are dominant market players. Industry standard-setting can involve complex negotiations over patent rights and licensing terms, and entities use cross-licenses and patent pools to address difficulties around patent thickets. However, such industry cooperation also may raise antitrust concerns, for example, with provisions in portfolio cross-licenses that could enable price fixing. Adverse legal or regulatory rulings related to antitrust and IP may expose software and IT services entities to costly and lengthy litigations and potential monetary losses as a result. Such rulings may also affect an entity’s market share and pricing power, if its patents or dominant position in important markets are challenged legally, with significant financial consequences. Therefore, entities that balance the IP protection and its use to spur innovation and ensure their IP management and other business practices do not unfairly restrict competition may reduce regulatory scrutiny and legal actions while protecting market value.
  • 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
    • 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.
    • 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.
      None
    • Materials Sourcing & Efficiency The category addresses issues related to the resilience of materials supply chains to impacts of climate change and other external environmental and social factors. It captures the impacts of such external factors on operational activity of suppliers, which can further affect availability and pricing of key resources. It addresses a company’s ability to manage these risks through product design, manufacturing, and end-of-life management, such as by using of recycled and renewable materials, reducing the use of key materials (dematerialization), maximizing resource efficiency in manufacturing, and making R&D investments in substitute materials. Additionally, companies can manage these issues by screening, selection, monitoring, and engagement with suppliers to ensure their resilience to external risks. It does not address issues associated with environmental and social externalities created by operational activity of individual suppliers, which is covered in a separate category.
      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

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