SASB standards and industry-based metrics

What are the SASB Standards?

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board published standards for 77 industries, grouped into 11 sectors under its Sustainable Industry Classification System (SICS). Each standard lists the disclosure topics most likely to be financially material for a typical company in the industry, such as data security for software companies or water management for beverage makers, with metrics, technical protocols defining how to measure them, and activity metrics, such as the number of users or production volumes, used to scale them. SASB merged into the Value Reporting Foundation, which the IFRS Foundation consolidated in 2022, and the ISSB amended the standards in December 2023 to make them internationally applicable. See IFRS S1.

How does IFRS S1 use the SASB Standards?

When identifying the sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could affect its prospects, a company must refer to and consider the applicability of the disclosure topics in the SASB Standards; when deciding what information to disclose about them, it must refer to and consider the applicability of the SASB metrics. It applies judgement: a topic or metric may not apply to its business model, and materiality still decides what is reported. It may also consider other sources, such as the pronouncements of other standard setters designed to meet investors' needs. See financial materiality.

What are the IFRS S2 industry-based metrics?

IFRS S2 requires a company to disclose industry-based metrics associated with its business models, activities or other common features that characterise participation in an industry, referring to and considering the applicability of the Industry-based Guidance on Implementing IFRS S2. The guidance takes the climate-related topics and metrics from the SASB Standards, such as fleet fuel economy for car makers or energy resource planning for electric utilities. Jurisdictions adopting the ISSB standards can change this: AASB S2 in Australia does not include requirements to refer to and consider industry-based information or to disclose industry-based metrics. See IFRS S2 and ISSB adoption by country.

SASB Standards in practice: a software company

A cloud software company applying IFRS S1 considers the six disclosure topics in the SASB Software and IT Services standard.

Five topics are material: its data centres use large amounts of electricity, its customers trust it with personal data, breaches and outages would damage revenue, and it competes for scarce engineers. Intellectual property and anti-competitive behaviour is not material, because it has a small market share and no history of related legal proceedings, and it records that judgement. It reports the SASB metrics for the five topics, with activity metrics such as data storage capacity, and its climate metrics under IFRS S2. See ESG KPIs explained.

How is the ISSB changing the SASB Standards?

In July 2025, the ISSB proposed a comprehensive review of nine priority industries, the eight in the extractives and minerals processing sector and processed foods, and targeted amendments to 41 other industries, aligning metrics on topics such as water management and workforce health and safety, with matching changes to the IFRS S2 industry-based guidance. In March 2026, it proposed amendments for electric utilities and power generators, agricultural products, and meat, poultry and dairy. It aims to issue the enhancements in 2026, and has planned a further phase covering six standards in the technology and communications sector.

What if a company operates in several industries?

It considers the SASB Standard for each industry in which it has significant activities, usually aligned with its operating segments, and reports the relevant topics and metrics for each, with activity metrics so readers can compare. A conglomerate with a utility and a software business, for example, considers both standards and explains which metrics relate to which segment. See ESRS 2 general disclosures.

How do the SASB Standards differ from GRI?

The SASB Standards focus on matters likely to affect a company's financial prospects, industry by industry, for investors; GRI covers a company's impacts on the economy, environment and people, for all stakeholders. The EU dropped plans for sector-specific ESRS in the Omnibus, so EU companies that need industry metrics often draw them from the SASB Standards as entity-specific disclosures. See GRI and the ISSB.

This guide is general information. It is not tax or legal advice for your situation.