Industry Comparison

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Current language: English (2023)

You are viewing information about the following Industries:

  • Marine Transportation Marine Transportation industry entities provide deep-sea, coastal or river-way freight shipping services. The industry is of strategic importance to international trade, and its revenues are tied to macroeconomic cycles. Important activities include transportation of containerised and bulk freight, including consumer goods and a wide range of commodities, and transportation of chemicals and petroleum products in tankers. Because of the industry's global scope, entities may operate under many diverse applicable jurisdictional legal and regulatory frameworks.
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  • Apparel, Accessories & Footwear The Apparel, Accessories & Footwear industry includes entities involved in the design, manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing of various products, including adult and children’s clothing, handbags, jewellery, watches and footwear. Products are manufactured primarily by vendors in emerging markets, thereby allowing entities in the industry to focus on design, wholesaling, marketing, supply chain management and retail activities.
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Relevant Issues for both Industries (9 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.
  • Marine Transportation 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 Marine transportation entities generate emissions mainly from the combustion of diesel in ship engines. The industry’s reliance on heavy fuel oil (‘bunker fuel’) is of material concern because of rising fuel costs and intensifying greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations. The industry is among the most fuel efficient of the major transportation modes in terms of fuel use per tonne shipped. However, because of the industry’s size, its contribution to the global GHG emissions is still significant. Recent environmental regulations are encouraging the adoption of more fuel-efficient engines and the use of cleaner-burning fuels. Fuel constitutes a major expense for industry players, providing a further incentive for investing in upgrades or retrofits to boost fuel efficiency.
    • 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 Air pollutants such as sulphur oxides (SO?), nitrogen oxides (NO?) and particulate matter (PM10) are significant environmental externalities from the use of fossil fuels by marine shipping entities. These pollutants tend to have localised environmental and health impacts and are especially a concern at port cities. Air pollution regulations are encouraging the adoption of more fuel-efficient engines and the use of cleaner-burning fuels as entities seek to reduce exposure to fines and environmental remediation costs. A further fuel efficiency incentive is that fuel constitutes a major expense for the industry, so capital expenditures to upgrade vessels may be offset over the long term from fuel costs savings.
    • 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.
      • Ecological Impacts The operations and waste disposal practices of marine transportation entities may create substantial environmental externalities, such as water pollution and damage to marine life. Seagoing vessels routinely discharge ballast water, bilge water and untreated sewage. Compliance with international regulations intended to manage the ecological impacts of operation may require significant capital expenditures to upgrade or instal waste management systems. Illegal bilge water dumping and other unregulated discharges may result in hefty fines, negatively affecting an entity’s risk profile. Operating in areas of protected conservation status, such as Emission Control Areas (ECAs) and Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas (PSSAs), may increase the risk of ecological impacts as well as the risk of violating environmental regulations.
    • 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.
      • Workforce Health & Safety Marine transportation workers face dangers such as hazardous weather and exposure to large machinery and heavy cargo. The greatest health and safety risks occur during loading and unloading cargo at ports. Ships must be loaded and unloaded quickly and on schedule, increasing injury risk, fatigue and stress. The health and well-being of workers in the industry also is linked inextricably to entity safety performance since a healthy crew is necessary for safe voyages. Entities with inadequate safety management systems that fail to ensure crew health and safety may witness increased employee turnover and worker-related expenses, including medical expenses such as insurance premiums and worker pay-outs.
    • Supply Chain Management The category addresses management of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks within a company’s supply chain. It addresses issues associated with environmental and social externalities created by suppliers through their operational activities. Such issues include, but are not limited to, environmental responsibility, human rights, labour practices, and ethics and corruption. Management may involve screening, selection, monitoring, and engagement with suppliers on their environmental and social impacts. The category does not address the impacts of external factors – such as climate change and other environmental and social factors – on suppliers’ operations and/or on the availability and pricing of key resources, which is covered in a separate category.
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    • 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.
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    • 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 Port facilitation payments are considered standard business practice in some countries to obtain permits, cargo clearance and port berths. However, anti-bribery laws place pressure on marine transportation entities to alter this practice. Enforcement of these laws may result in significant one-time costs and higher compliance costs and increased cost of capital, or affect an entity’s social licence to operate. Entity governance must monitor for and prevent corruption, participation—whether wilful or unintentional—in illegal or unethical payments, or the exertion of unfair influence. Operating in corruption-prone countries may exacerbate these risks.
    • 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.
      • Accident & Safety Management Accidents or leaks involving large vessels can have significant impacts on life, property and the environment. Negative media attention and significant clean-up costs may impair an entity’s finances. To reduce the risk of accidents, entities conduct extensive safety measures, such as employee training programmes, periodic dry-docking maintenance periods and annual class-renewal surveys conducted by classification societies. The global marketplace’s reliance on the shipping industry means that voyages must be made within precise timeframes, providing further accident prevention incentives.
  • Apparel, Accessories & Footwear Remove
    Access Standard
    • 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
    • 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.
      • Management of Chemicals in Products Chemical safety regulations demonstrate regulatory and stakeholder concern surrounding the use of harmful or potentially harmful substances in consumer products, including apparel, accessories and footwear. Finished apparel and footwear products have been found to contain traces of chemicals that have been banned or regulated. Depending on the chemical, the amount present in a product and the type of exposure, specific substances can be carcinogenic and can disrupt hormone activity in humans and other organisms. Failure to manage this issue may generate increased regulatory oversight and affect an entity’s social licence to operate. The presence of harmful chemicals in products can result in recalls, litigation and reputational damage. Entities in this industry can examine the design, manufacturing and end-of-life phases to manage the creation, use and disposal of products containing chemicals of concern, develop safe alternatives and eliminate banned chemicals. Given the industry’s reliance on outsourced manufacturing, this involves proactive partnerships with suppliers. In managing this issue, entities must balance the hazards posed by some chemicals against the quality of a product and its costs of production.
    • 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
    • Supply Chain Management The category addresses management of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks within a company’s supply chain. It addresses issues associated with environmental and social externalities created by suppliers through their operational activities. Such issues include, but are not limited to, environmental responsibility, human rights, labour practices, and ethics and corruption. Management may involve screening, selection, monitoring, and engagement with suppliers on their environmental and social impacts. The category does not address the impacts of external factors – such as climate change and other environmental and social factors – on suppliers’ operations and/or on the availability and pricing of key resources, which is covered in a separate category.
      • Environmental Impacts in the Supply Chain The Apparel, Accessories & Footwear industry’s global supply chain contributes significantly to adverse environmental externalities through water consumption and various forms of pollution. Water pollution results from the discharge of chemicals during water-intensive dyeing and tanning processes. Air pollution stems from the industry’s energy use and some manufacturing processes. These impacts have the potential to damage an entity’s reputation and to affect cost structures over time. The scale of this issue has been intensified historically by the industry relying on manufacturing partners in emerging markets with limited environmental regulations and oversight. However, enhanced stakeholder and consumer scrutiny, coupled with increasingly stringent regulation in some regions, has encouraged entities throughout the industry to work with suppliers to reduce their environmental impact. Apparel, Accessories & Footwear entities that leverage their market power to influence suppliers to improve operational efficiencies and resource consumption and limit pollution can mitigate the costs associated with increased resource scarcity and regulation. Further, those that engage with suppliers through monitoring, auditing and strict standards may better preserve shareholder value over the long term.
      • Labour Conditions in the Supply Chain The treatment of workers and the protection of worker rights in the Apparel, Accessories & Footwear industry’s supply chain is of growing concern among consumers, regulators and leading entities. Critical aspects of this issue include employee health and safety, fair pay, child labour and forced labour. Although many entities strive to improve supply chain labour conditions, the industry’s reliance on a multitiered system of suppliers, subcontractors, labour recruitment firms and part-time workers makes these issues difficult to manage. Because entities in the industry typically contract with suppliers in countries with the lowest direct costs, the industry’s products often are manufactured in countries with limited regulations or enforcement protecting workers. This dynamic can increase an entity’s exposure to reputational risks. Effects on short- and long-term costs and sales can arise from increasing regulation and enforcement in response to high-profile safety or labour incidents, production disruptions because of strikes and other labour-related work stoppages, or through a shift in demand away from entities associated with such incidents. Entities with strong supply chain standards, monitoring and engagement with suppliers to address labour concerns may better preserve shareholder value over the long term.
    • 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.
      • Raw Materials Sourcing The Apparel, Accessories & Footwear industry relies on many raw materials including cotton, leather, wool, rubber, and precious minerals and metals, as inputs for finished products. Sustainability impacts related to climate change, land use, resource scarcity and conflict in regions where the industry’s supply chain operates affect the industry’s ability to reliably source materials. The ability of entities to manage potential material shortages, supply disruptions, price volatility and reputational risks can be more difficult when supply chains lack transparency. Failure to effectively manage this issue can delay shipments and depress earnings, reduce margins, constrain revenue growth or increase costs of capital. The types of risk associated with sourcing different materials can require different solutions, including engaging with suppliers, enhancing transparency by using certification standards, using innovative alternative materials, or introducing circular economy practices. Entities that are proactive may reduce their exposure to price volatility and potential supply disruptions, while improving their brand reputation and developing new market opportunities.
    • 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
    • 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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