Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Sustainability Accounting Standards

SASB Standards are comprised of (1) disclosure guidance and (2) accounting standards on sustainability topics for use by U.S. and foreign public companies in their annual filings (Form 10-K or 20-F) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). To the extent relevant, SASB Standards may also be applicable to other periodic mandatory fillings with the SEC, such as the Form 10-Q, Form S-1, and Form 8-K.

SASB’s disclosure guidance identifies sustainability topics at an industry level and—depending on the specific operating context of a company—may be material to a company within that industry. Each company is ultimately responsible for determining which information is material, and which such company is therefore required to include in its Form 10-K or 20-F and other periodic SEC filings.

SASB’s accounting standards provide companies with standardized accounting metrics to account for performance on industry-level sustainability topics. When making disclosure on sustainability topics, companies adopting SASB’s accounting standards will help to ensure that disclosure is standardized and therefore useful, relevant, comparable and auditable.

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