This is a list of organizations that establish financial reporting standards, regulate financial reporting, or champion ESG disclosures. While this list is not exhaustive, it can be used as a resource to learn more about the organizations creating ESG standards and recommendations.
Financial Accounting Standards Board
The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is the independent, private- sector, not-for-profit organization that establishes financial accounting and reporting standards for public and private companies and not-for-profit organizations that follow Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). The FASB is recognized by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as the designated accounting standard setter for public companies. The FASB develops and issues financial accounting standards through a transparent and inclusive process intended to promote financial reporting that provides useful information to investors and others who use financial reports.
Financial Stability Board
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) is an international body that monitors and makes recommendations about the global financial system. The FSB promotes international financial stability; it does so by coordinating national financial authorities and international standard-setting bodies as they work toward developing strong regulatory, supervisory and other financial sector policies. It fosters a level playing field by encouraging coherent implementation of these policies across sectors and jurisdictions. The FSB, working through its members, seeks to strengthen financial systems and increase the stability of international financial markets. The policies developed in the pursuit of this agenda are implemented by jurisdictions and national authorities.
Global Reporting Initiative
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is the independent, international organization that helps businesses and other organizations take responsibility for their impacts, by providing them with the global common language to communicate those impacts. The GRI Standards remain the most widely used sustainability reporting standards globally.
International Accounting Standards Board
The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is an independent group of experts with an appropriate mix of recent practical experience in setting accounting standards, in preparing, auditing, or using financial reports, and in accounting education. IASB members are responsible for the development and publication of IFRS Accounting Standards.
International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation
The International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS) is a not-for-profit, public interest organization established to develop high-quality, understandable, enforceable and globally accepted accounting and sustainability disclosure standards.Our Standards are developed by our two standard-setting boards, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
International Sustainability Standards Board
The IFRS Foundation Trustees announced the creation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in 2021.The intention is for the ISSB to deliver a comprehensive global baseline of sustainability-related disclosure standards that provide investors and other capital market participants with information about companies’ sustainability-related risks and opportunities to help them make informed decisions. Until the ISSB develops its own standards, it encourages companies to keep using SASB standards.
Sustainability Accountability Standards Board
The Sustainability Accountability Standards Board (SASB) established reporting standards as an independent nonprofit organization. SASB is now part of the IFRS Foundation SASB Standards guide the disclosure of financially material sustainability information by companies to their investors. Available for 77 industries, the Standards identify the subset of environmental, social, and governance issues most relevant to financial performance in each industry.
Securities and Exchange Commission
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) works together to make a positive impact on America’s economy, our capital markets, and people’s lives. The SEC has a mission of protecting investors, maintaining fair, orderly, and efficient markets, and facilitating capital formation.
Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) created the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to develop recommendations on the types of information that companies should disclose to support investors, lenders, and insurance underwriters in appropriately assessing and pricing a specific set of risks—risks related to climate change. Our disclosure recommendations are structured around four thematic areas that represent core elements of how companies operate: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. The four recommendations are interrelated and supported by 11 recommended disclosures that build out the framework with information that should help investors and others understand how reporting organizations think about and assess climate-related risks and opportunities.
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945. Currently made up of 193 Member States, the UN and its work are guided by the purposes and principles contained in its founding Charter. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015, provides a shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future. At its heart are the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are an urgent call for action by all countries – developed and developing – in a global partnership. They recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests.
Workforce Disclosure Initiative
The Workforce Disclosure Initiative (WDI) aims to improve corporate transparency and accountability on workforce issues, provide companies and investors with comprehensive and comparable data and help increase the provision of good jobs worldwide.
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. The Measuring Stakeholder Capitalism Initiative was launched in August 2019 at the request of the World Economic Forum’s International Business Council in collaboration with Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. It seeks to improve the ways in which companies measure and demonstrate their performance against environmental, social and governance (ESG) indicators and track their positive contributions towards achieving the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on a consistent basis.