As highlighted in the Sustainability and business — the call to action; build back better report, we started on a programme of thought leadership to explore accountancy and sustainability. This is part of a series of briefs exploring the topic of sustainability, business and the finance professional’s key role. These briefs will help organisations consider the sustainability issues, how to integrate them into their long-term decision-making, and how to incorporate these issues into internal and external reporting.
This paper is designed as a summary of a specific standard or framework. It is written from the management accounting perspective. As a finance professional, you are likely to encounter one or many of the sustainability frameworks and standards. It is a crowded and fragmented landscape, with slightly different terms, inconsistent language and various measures between the numerous methodologies. Adding to the confusion is whether adoption is voluntary or mandatory, and that some organisations work with combinations of standards and frameworks at the same time. Finally, the approaches to reporting also differ. They range from annual reports, integrated reports, sections on an organisation’s website aimed at a specific audience or a stand-alone sustainability report.
Fortunately, there are several initiatives underway to address this fragmented accounting and reporting landscape. They build a coherent global approach to corporate reporting that encompasses financial and non-financial reporting.1
A framework or a set of standards? The difference
A framework is a set of principles-based guidance for how information can be structured and prepared, and which broad topics should be covered. A set of standards are specific, replicable and detailed requirements for what should be reported for each topic. They are rules-based requirements.
Background
The Financial Stability Board (FSB) created the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) in 2015. This came after the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors requested that the FSB consider the risks inherent in climate change. In 2017, the TCFD released climate-related financial disclosure recommendations to address the need for reliable corporate disclosure of climate-related information.
Recognising that climate risk is material for many organisations, the TCFD encouraged all entities with public debt or equity securities to voluntarily adopt its disclosure recommendations. To ensure the controls and governance over the preparation of climate-risk disclosures, and pointing to existing securities exchange requirements with the ensuing legal obligation to disclose material risks, it encouraged their inclusion in mainstream financial filings. It also recommended that asset owners and managers implement the recommendations, assessing the inherent risks in their portfolios, thereby better informing their investment decisions.
