Making the Standards Work Together

New research and policy developments illustrate a direction that many corporate sustainability and asset managers will find promising: a determined push for ensuring that standards work across borders and interact easily with each other.

A World Economic Forum briefing paper identifies current scenarios that could require companies to report under multiple sustainability requirements at once. The commentary, ‘Why We Need a More Connected Corporate Reporting System,’ also offers an answer: jurisdictions around the world should adopt the ISSB sustainability standards, IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, with as few changes as possible, along with a proposed feature called “passporting.” This solution could mean an ISSB-based report can meet requirements elsewhere, and with more consistent measurement methods such as the GHG Protocol.

Currently, more than 45 jurisdictions are adopting or moving to adopt the ISSB standards. In the latest case, Thailand is weaving the ISSB standards into its existing rules. As reported by ESG News, Thailand’s Securities and Exchange Commission has aligned the requirements for listed companies’ sustainability disclosures with both IFRS S1 and IFRS S2. The expectation begins with companies in the Stock Exchange of Thailand’s SET50 Index, who will need to disclose 2027 data. The rules include five transition reliefs, including an initial exemption for Scope 3, and require greenhouse gas (GHG) disclosures to be assured.

We note that ISSB adoption around the world is relevant for U.S. companies – although no U.S. rule requires ISSB reporting – as U.S. companies can come into scope through subsidiaries and listings in jurisdictions that have adopted ISSB-based rules.

Combining standards and recommendations has already come a long way: The ISSB standards draw on SASB and the TCFD recommendations, while the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) share disclosures with the GRI Standards. Moreover, G&A research found that companies are “stacking” multiple frameworks when they report to more than one, by using a single set of data and disclosures. According to our 2026 Sustainability Reporting In Focus report, of Russell 1000 reporters aligning with the ISSB standards in 2025, 79% also used SASB and 73% also used GRI.

That mirrors how we as advisors have long approached our clients’ sustainability reports, starting from the base of GRI Standards and extending the same data to SASB, TCFD, the ISSB standards and ESRS. GRI itself collaborates on interoperability tools with ESRS and the ISSB standards.

As we head into this year’s climate COP, a few other findings are worth noting: the World Meteorological Organization found record concentrations of GHGs, and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said the world will “overshoot” the 1.5 degree warming limit with an estimated 50% chance of returning to it by the year 2100. The EU proposed planning for a 3-degree rise.

As reported by ESG Today, Morgan Stanley’s survey of 900 institutional investors found that 82% of asset owners and 85% of asset managers expect to increase allocations to sustainable investments over the next two years, though more slowly than last year. Data availability and consistency is now their top concern, rated “very significant” by 64%, up from 47% in 2025. That finding seems to add weight to the WEF’s call for more consistent measurement.

A study from scholars in Canada, reported by Trellis, found that having a target validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is the only one of eight corporate climate strategies that coincided with lower operational emissions, and the link grew stronger the longer the target was in place. Our SBTi target-setting team can help your company set one. Our recent research found that more companies held an SBTi-validated target in 2025 than a year earlier.

On November 10, join G&A and EcoOnline for our webinar Beyond Disclosure: Turning Climate Risk Reporting into Crisis Readiness.