Sustainability reporting frameworks: four kinds of thing, one word

The phrase covers four different kinds of thing.

Standards set requirements an organisation can comply with — IFRS S1 and S2, UK SRS, the ESRS, GRI and SASB.

Frameworks set out principles and structure to follow — the TCFD recommendations, the TNFD recommendations and the Integrated Reporting Framework.

CDP is a disclosure platform and questionnaire.

And regulations decide whether any of them is required — in the UK, the Companies Act, SECR, ESOS and the FCA's listing rules.

They answer different questions for different readers.

GRI asks an organisation to report its most significant impacts on the economy, environment and people, for all stakeholders.

SASB identifies the sustainability topics and metrics likely to matter financially in each of 77 industries, for investors.

SASB is now maintained by the ISSB and is referred to by IFRS S1 and S2; GRI is independent.

Many companies use both.

SASB is a set of industry-specific standards covering many sustainability topics, with metrics.

The TCFD recommendations were a climate-only framework of four recommendations and eleven recommended disclosures, without industry metrics.

Both fed into IFRS S2: its four pillars come from the TCFD, and its industry-based guidance derives from SASB.

The TCFD disbanded on 12 October 2023; the ISSB maintains SASB.

The CSRD is an EU directive that requires reporting under the ESRS; IFRS S2 is a standard that binds only where a jurisdiction adopts it.

The ESRS cover environmental, social and governance topics under double materiality — impact and financial — while IFRS S2 covers climate under single, financial materiality.

The EFRAG–ISSB interoperability guidance says the financial-materiality definition is aligned, but the ESRS keep the impact lens on top.

GRI.

Its Standards are modular: the Universal Standards (GRI 1, 2 and 3) apply to every reporter, Sector Standards apply by sector, and Topic Standards are used for the topics the organisation determines to be material.

SASB is organised by industry rather than by chosen module, and CDP is a questionnaire, not a standard.

The ISSB standards, IFRS S1 and S2, which were written for investors, lenders and other creditors and absorbed the SASB Standards' industry-based approach.

In the UK the same standards are endorsed as UK SRS S1 and S2.

GRI is written for all stakeholders and CDP is a disclosure questionnaire.

Start with what binds it: SECR, ESOS and the Companies Act climate disclosures apply by size and type, and listed companies in scope report against UK SRS on a comply-or-explain basis from accounting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027.

Beyond that the choice follows the reader: UK SRS or IFRS for investors, GRI for wider stakeholders, the ESRS if an EU entity in the group is in CSRD scope.