SASB standards sit inside the ISSB framework as its industry-specific measurement layer. When the IFRS Foundation absorbed the organization that maintained SASB in 2022, the 77 sets of industry-tailored metrics were built directly into the architecture of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. Companies applying IFRS S1 are explicitly told to refer to SASB’s disclosure topics and metrics when identifying what sustainability information is material, and IFRS S2’s climate guidance is derived from SASB’s industry classifications. SASB didn’t disappear into the ISSB. It became the granular engine that makes the broader framework work at the industry level.
How SASB Ended Up Under the ISSB
The IFRS Foundation announced the International Sustainability Standards Board on November 3, 2021, at COP26 in Glasgow.1IFRS Foundation. About the International Sustainability Standards Board Placing sustainability standard-setting under the same Foundation that oversees IFRS Accounting Standards was deliberate: it put sustainability disclosures on the same institutional footing as financial reporting.
At the time, SASB’s standards were housed inside the Value Reporting Foundation. On August 1, 2022, the IFRS Foundation completed its consolidation of the VRF, bringing the full library of SASB industry standards under the ISSB’s control.2IFRS Foundation. IFRS Foundation Completes Consolidation with Value Reporting Foundation The ISSB didn’t inherit these standards as a reference document. It took over active maintenance, so updates, amendments, and new metrics now come from the same body that issues IFRS S1 and S2.
Before the consolidation, companies were juggling a patchwork of voluntary frameworks with overlapping but inconsistent requirements. Folding SASB, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board, and the TCFD recommendations into one standard-setter gave the market a single authoritative source, with SASB preserved as a distinct, maintained component inside the ISSB’s technical work.1IFRS Foundation. About the International Sustainability Standards Board
What the SASB Standards Contain
SASB standards are organized around 77 industries grouped into 11 sectors.3IFRS Foundation. SASB Sustainable Industry Classification System Industry List Each industry standard identifies disclosure topics and accompanying accounting metrics tailored to the sustainability issues most likely to affect financial performance in that specific industry. A mining company and a software company face different sustainability pressures, and the framework treats them differently rather than forcing both through one generic template.
The metrics themselves are quantitative and designed for comparability across companies in the same industry. Examples include water consumption intensity, renewable energy as a percentage of total energy sourced, and employee health and safety incident rates. Activity metrics sit alongside these to provide scale context, so total emissions figures can be read against production volume or revenue.
Everything runs through a financial materiality filter. A disclosure topic qualifies only if it’s reasonably likely to affect investor or creditor decisions about the company’s financial condition. That’s narrower than “impact materiality,” which asks how a company’s operations affect the world around it. SASB’s fixed focus on enterprise value is exactly why the ISSB chose it as its industry-level foundation.
Where IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 Point You to SASB
The integration between SASB and the ISSB isn’t a loose recommendation. IFRS S1 contains paragraph-level requirements that direct companies to SASB by name.
Paragraph 54 of IFRS S1 states that when identifying sustainability-related risks and opportunities, a company “shall refer to and consider the applicability of the disclosure topics in the SASB Standards.” Paragraph 58 mirrors this for metrics: when determining what to measure, a company “shall refer to and consider the applicability of the metrics associated with the disclosure topics included in the SASB Standards.”4IFRS Foundation. IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information A company can conclude that a particular SASB topic or metric doesn’t apply to its circumstances, but the starting point is mandatory consideration, not optional reference.
IFRS S2 goes further for climate. Its industry-based guidance appendix is directly derived from SASB Standards and preserves the original SASB metric codes for cross-referencing.5IFRS Foundation. IFRS S2 Industry-Based Guidance An electric utility, for instance, would look to this appendix for climate-related metrics such as installed capacity by energy source and transition risk management. These aren’t new inventions. They’re SASB metrics repurposed as the granular disclosure layer within the ISSB’s climate standard.
Both IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 were issued in June 2023 and are effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after January 1, 2024.6IFRS Foundation. IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information IFRS S1 organizes disclosures around four content areas that mirror the TCFD structure: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.7IFRS Foundation. Introduction to the ISSB and IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards IFRS S2 uses the same four pillars for climate and integrates the TCFD recommendations in full.8IFRS Foundation. Comparison IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures with the TCFD Recommendations SASB is what fills those four pillars with industry-specific content.
In practice, a company applying IFRS S1 and S2 is already using SASB standards whether or not it labels them as such. The SASB metrics are the industry answer to the ISSB’s principle-level questions.
What This Means for Your Reporting
Because SASB is embedded rather than optional, the first job in an ISSB reporting cycle is identifying the SASB industry standards that apply to your business and walking through each disclosure topic and metric to decide what’s material. Documenting the conclusions matters as much as the disclosures themselves: if a SASB topic is not reported, the file should show why the company judged it inapplicable.
The ISSB built several reliefs into the standards for first-time reporters.9IFRS Foundation. The Jurisdictional Journey Towards Implementing IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 In year one, a company can limit its disclosures to climate under IFRS S2, deferring the broader IFRS S1 sustainability topics to year two. Scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions get a one-year exemption, which addresses a real data-availability problem when supply chain information isn’t directly controlled. Companies already using a measurement method other than the GHG Protocol can continue with it during the first year. Sustainability disclosures normally have to be published at the same time as financial statements, but the first-year report can be delayed to align with half-year financial reports. And no prior-year comparatives are required in the first annual reporting period. These reliefs phase in complexity; they don’t remove it.
The SASB metrics themselves are being actively updated. In March 2026, the ISSB released an exposure draft proposing amendments to SASB standards under its 2024–2026 work plan, designed to align SASB metrics more closely with IFRS S2’s industry-based guidance and to extend coverage into areas like nature-related disclosures. Proposed additions touch industries including agriculture, meat and dairy production, and electric utilities. Using SASB metrics isn’t a one-time compliance step. Companies need to track the ISSB’s work plan and exposure drafts the way they track changes to financial accounting standards.
A Note If You Also Report Under ESRS
Companies reporting in both the EU and in ISSB-adopting jurisdictions should not assume the ISSB framework covers ESRS obligations. The IFRS Foundation and EFRAG published interoperability guidance in May 2024 explaining the relationship.10IFRS Foundation. ESRS-ISSB Standards Interoperability Guidance The ISSB uses a single materiality lens focused on investor decision-making. ESRS uses double materiality, adding impact materiality, which asks whether the company’s activities have significant effects on people or the environment regardless of financial consequence. The financial materiality assessment under ESRS is aligned with the ISSB’s definition, so a company meeting ESRS financial materiality has effectively met the equivalent ISSB requirement. The additional work for dual reporters comes from the impact materiality layer, which has no ISSB counterpart.
The Short Version
SASB is not a parallel framework to the ISSB. It’s the industry-specific engine inside it. IFRS S1 requires companies to consider SASB disclosure topics and metrics when identifying what to report. IFRS S2 draws its industry-based climate guidance directly from SASB, including the original metric codes. Working through the SASB standards for your industry is how you translate the ISSB’s high-level principles into the specific numbers and topics that go in your report, and that translation work is now part of the standard reporting cycle, not an optional add-on.