The IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) announced today the publication of new exposure drafts with proposed amendments to three of its sector-focused SASB sustainability reporting standards, including those covering the Agricultural Products, Meat, Poultry & Dairy, and Electric Utilities & Power Generators sectors.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) was founded in 2011 with a mission to establish industry-specific ESG disclosure standards for companies, designed to enable investors to assess the materiality of reported sustainability information, and to compare companies on these metrics on a global basis. SASB was consolidated into the IFRS Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) in 2022. The SASB standards also form a source of industry-based guidance for the ISSB’s sustainability and climate reporting standards IFRS S1, and IFRS S2, with companies required to “refer to and consider the applicability of” the SASB standards when applying ISSB Standards. The SASB standards cover 77 industries, providing industry-specific disclosure guidance on sustainability-related risks and opportunities.

The ISSB initially announced plans to enhance the SASB standards as part of its 2024 – 2026 work plan, launched in 2024, which identified 12 sectors as initial priorities for enhancement. Exposure drafts on nine of the sector standards were released last year, with the new publication covering the remaining three standards.

According to the ISSB, the proposed amendments are aimed at aligning the language and concepts in the SASB Standards with ISSB Standards, which were released in 2023, improve the international applicability and decision-usefulness of the disclosures, and to support interoperability with other standards.

Among the key changes proposed for the Agricultural Products standard is an expansion of the scope to include direct farming operations, and the addition of Food Loss and Food Waste and Land Use & Ecological Impacts disclosure topics, while the Meat, Poultry & Dairy standard proposals include changes to several metrics, and the addition of a Product Innovation disclosure topic and new Environmental Supply Chain Management and Social Supply Chain Management disclosure topics (replacing the current Environmental & Social Impacts of Animal Supply Chain and Animal & Feed Sourcing disclosure topics). For the Electric Utilities & Power Generators standard, proposed changes include a new Ecological Impacts, Community Relations & Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Employee Recruitment, Development & Retention Employee Recruitment, Development & Retention, and Supply Chain Management disclosure topics, among other proposed revisions for each.

The ISSB said that it is inviting feedback on the proposed SASB standards amendments, with a comment period remaining open until July 24, 2026.

ISSB Vice-Chair Sue Lloyd said:

“We know that industry-specific information is decision-useful to investors. That’s why entities applying ISSB Standards are required to disclose industry-specific information to meet investor needs. The SASB Standards help companies to meet this requirement.”

Click here to access the exposure drafts and consultation.