ISSB Standards Reveal Finance Is The Fuel For Sustainability

Follow the money. It may sound contrary to the do-good, feel-good, arm-around-the-world imagery that typically accompanies any corporate discussions of environmental, social and governance (ESG) and sustainability, but—as it turns out—if you really want businesses to change their behaviors, you’re not going to do it with platitudes and well wishes. Money can always be the catalyst.

The latest evidence of this phenomenon was the June release by the International Sustainability Standards Board of its first two reporting standards. Just 19 months after the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation launched the bold initiative, the ISSB created a set of global reporting standards to guide the way companies need to report sustainability information in their financial statements.