Organisations

This reporting framework offers companies seven guiding principles and 12 reporting requirements to help prepare (financially) material and decision-useful environmental disclosures for the mainstream report. CDSB additionally offers topic-specific guidance for companies, such as on climate-related reporting and climate accounting.

Use this resource to:

• Measure, assess and value: Understand the measurement and disclosure standards and guidance for organisations, so that investors can provide capacity to the asset to help adherence.
• Communicate: Understand how underlying assets might prepare environmental and climate change information in a way that connects to mainstream financial information.

Guidance that contains disclosure recommendations for information on the material financial impacts of climate-related risks and opportunities, including those related to the global transition to a lower-carbon economy. The TCFD recommendations are structured around the four pillars of Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics and Targets.

Use this resource to:

• Communicate: Follow recommendations to structure climate-related financial disclosures. Other voluntary standards can be used in conjunction with TCFD recommendations.

The CFO Principles on Integrated SDG Investments and Finance guide companies in aligning their sustainability commitments with credible corporate finance strategies geared towards contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Implement: Integrate impact management and SDG contribution into the organisation’s corporate finance function.

Participating in the UN Global Compact requires a commitment from organisations to report annually on efforts to operate responsibly in four areas: human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

Use this resource to:

• Communicate: Submit an annual Communication on Progress on implementing the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact.

The principles provide guidance for financial institutions and their public and private stakeholders to transition to an impact-based economy that can deliver on people’s needs and aspirations within planetary boundaries. The Principles promote Positive Impact Finance as a key solution for bridging the funding gap required to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Implement: Understand key definitions and requirements for the delivery and assessment of positive impact finance.

The B Corp Certification is an assessment process that evaluates a company’s social and environmental performance, as well as governance and transparency. Organisations that achieve B Corp Certification demonstrate a commitment to meeting a high standard of responsible business practices and accountability.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management

• Verification, assurance and certification: Achieve B Corp certification by meeting the standards set by B Lab, demonstrating a commitment to social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency.
• Benchmarking and rating: Compare impact scores and metrics with those of other organiations within the same industry or sector.

These benchmarks rank companies and financial institutions based on their impact performance. The World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) recognises that transformational change across seven systems (financial, decarbonisation and energy, food and agriculture, digital, social, urban, and nature) are needed to achieve sustainability. In each of these systems, companies that have a big role to play in hindering or advancing progress towards a sustainable future are identified as ‘keystone’ companies. The WBA then draws from existing standards to develop a publicly available methodology for each system (or component of a system). The methodology identifies the relevant topics and associated metrics for companies to disclose against.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Benchmarking and rating: Compare performance with other companies ranked according to WBA’s benchmarks.

Guidance on how to integrate the Sustainable Development Goals into reporting processes.

Use this resource to:

• Communicate: Use the guidance to disclose positive and negative contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals.

“Maximise Your Impact: A Guide for Social Entrepreneurs” proposes a practical approach for social entrepreneurs to understand and maximise the positive social value they create, supporting both the creation and development of impact-oriented organisations.

Use this resource for the following Actions of Impact Management:

• Strategy: Develop a strategy and business model that address the root causes of the problem that the organisation is trying to solve.
• Governance: Set the right governance structure and practices to serve the organisation’s mission.
• Identify: Identify the problems and solutions that the organisation will seek to address, including through qualitative research and stakeholder engagement.
• Measure, assess and value: Check whether the organisation has all the information it needs to assess its impacts. The guidance contains 10 questions that guide impact assessment, functioning as a checklist to ensure all necessary contextual information is collected.
• Set targets and plan: Create an impact goal (the core problem that the organisation is trying to achieve), set targets and forecast changes that the organisation is planning to make towards the impact goal and associated targets.
• Implement: Integrate information on social value into management decision-making.
• Monitor, learn and adapt: Understand how to use the collected information to decide whether to change, stop or scale-up activities, and learn how to develop a set of recommendations about adapting targets.

GRI is developing standards for 40 sectors to compliment their current topic standards.

Use this resource to:

• Identify: Identify sustainability topics to measure using the list of topics listed for each Sector Standard.
• Measure, assess and value: Identify metrics to measure for each significant topic. The standards themselves provide guidance on selecting metrics to report.
• Communicate: Report to all stakeholders on ‘material topics’ that reflect the organisation’s most significant impacts. The Sector Standards are a helpful starting point for identifying likely significant impacts.