31 December 2021 year-end sustainability reporting update

Historically, sustainability reporting standards have gone by many names such as non-financial reporting, ESG (environmental, social and governance) reporting, CSR (corporate and social responsibility) reporting, sustainability reporting, etc. and cover a variety of topics, including climate, emissions, pollution, social responsibility, governance and many others.

The various types of sustainability reporting have been addressed by numerous different standard setters; however, the standards have typically been non-mandatory and inconsistent in their requirements. This has resulted in ‘greenwashing’ where an entity may ‘cherry pick’ and disclose only information that casts its activities in a positive light, while ignoring others.

This fragmentation led to calls by many entities worldwide for the formation of a standard setter that can build on the work done by previous organisations and begin issuing a single set of globally consistent sustainability standards as a ‘global baseline’. Jurisdictions could then use that consistent baseline, and build additional requirements where considered necessary.

Please refer to our International Sustainability Reporting Bulletin for a ‘snapshot’ of sustainability reporting developments as at 31 December 2021, along with a summary of the major events that led to the formation of the ISSB, and an overview of what to expect in 2022.