The principles and requirements of the CDSB framework are intended to help organisations include environmental and social information in their mainstream reports.
The CDSB Framework draws on other reporting provisions including financial reporting standards and principles, legislative and regulatory reporting requirements.
To underscore this approach, here are a few key definitions and terminology from the Framework:
Investors — ‘The CDSB Framework adopts the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB) definition of investors that is: “existing and potential investors, lenders and other creditors in making decisions about providing resources to the entity.” ’8
Natural capital — ‘The CDSB Framework adopts the IIRC’s definition that is: “all renewable and non-renewable environmental resources and processes that provide goods or services that support the past, current or future prosperity of an organisation. It includes air, water, land, minerals and forests, biodiversity and ecosystem health.” ’9
Environmental and social results are the measures, indicators and other information that express the degree to which the organization has caused or contributed to environmental and social impacts in the reporting period through activities and outputs that represent sources of environmental and social impact.10
Sources of environmental and social impact — Sources of environmental impact are the activities of and outputs from the organisation that actually or potentially influence or contribute to environmental or social impacts.11
Environmental impacts can include:
GHG emissions
Renewable/non-renewable energy generation, use and consumption
Land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF)
Non-GHG emissions to air, land and water (e.g., noise, odor, particulates, pollutants, etc.)
Renewable and non-renewable material resource use (e.g., forest products, fish stocks, minerals, metals, etc.)
Water use and consumption
Waste and spillages (e.g., mining and hazardous waste, radiation and industrial by-products.)12
Also reflecting this collaborative and complementary approach, the CDSB, developed an extensive collection of resources, including:
CDSB Framework: Application guidance for climate-related disclosures, which focuses on the first six reporting requirements and provides checklists and suggestions for reporting.13
TCFD Implementation Guide: Using SASB Standards and the CDSB Framework to Enhance Climate-Related Financial Disclosures in Mainstream Reporting, created in collaboration with SASB, is a 'how-to' guide intended to facilitate the implementation of the TCFD Standards.14
TCFD Good Practice Handbook, a joint CDSB and SASB produced a follow-on to the Implementation Guide, identifies examples of good practices in reporting across the four core TCFD elements of governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.15
As noted above, CDSB Biodiversity guidance was developed and in 2021 and incorporated into the updated CDSB Framework. Similarly, an updated version of this TCFD Good Practice Handbook was developed in 2021 and will remain available with the updated Framework and other CDSB resources.