Future of reporting: the journey to global ESG standards

In 2021, the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF) was formed through the merger of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). The integration of these two entities signaled significant progress towards the development of environmental, social and governance standards.

In 2021, the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF) was formed through the merger of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). The integration of these two entities signaled significant progress towards the development of environmental, social and governance standards.

This special episode of the Better Finance Podcast features a conversation between Marc Siegel, EY ESG Reporting Thought Leader, and Janine Guillot, the Chief Executive Officer of the VRF. Their discussion covers how the VRF is helping to streamline the evolving ESG reporting and disclosure landscape and how corporations should approach ESG strategy and capture, measure and report ESG data, engaging cross-functional teams.

Key takeaways:

• The intention of the merger of the SASB and IIRC was to create a stronger global player that could be more influential in shaping the future of ESG reporting.
• The SASB comment letter to the SEC made clear that climate risk is business risk, and climate risk is relevant to financial performance and financial risk. Therefore, it should be within the purview of the SEC to require disclosure around climate risk.
  
• Europe has come out with an intent to develop European standards that would be applicable to companies and have asked the Financial Reporting Advisory Group to develop those standards. There is strong demand from global companies and global investors for some sort of international harmonization around standards.
  

For your convenience, full text transcript of this podcast is also available. Read the transcript.