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These resources will help you to adhere to and contribute to the ongoing development of external industry and multi-sector standards, frameworks, certifications, voluntary codes of conduct, and oversight mechanisms related to social and/or environmental performance.
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Developed in 1997, the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards) became the first and most widely used global standards for sustainability reporting. Today, over 12,000 companies use GRI Guidelines for sustainability reports, and they continue to serve as a credible global industry standard. This link introduces the global best practices for reporting publicly on universal standards. It also dives into a range of more specific topics related to social, environmental, and economic impacts.
The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, also known as the “Protect, Respect, and Remedy Framework,” set out 31 principles for states and companies to prevent, address, and remedy human rights abuses committed in business operations and the communities around them. The framework is founded on three pillars: the state's duty to protect human rights; the responsibility of businesses to respect human rights; and access to remedy for victims of business-related abuses. This document is a foundational piece for companies on how to respect and advance worker and community human rights.
How can you know which sustainability standards are credible? ISEAL is the global membership organisation for collaborative and transparent sustainability systems. Its members include Fairtrade International, Bonscuro, Forest Stewardship Council, and Rainforest Alliance, among others. ISEAL’s Community Members are sustainability standards and similar systems that collaborate to scale and demonstrate positive impact. Its Code Compliant members go further, adhering to ISEAL’s Codes of Good Practice – a globally recognised framework for best practice. It also releases tools and resources such as its Sustainability Claims Good Practice Guide and Challenge the Label, a guide for buyers when evaluating product sustainability claims.
This is the global standard for measuring GHG emissions. The protocol was developed by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and includes sector specific guidance and calculation tools.
The Science Based Targets initiative’s (SBTi) Corporate Net-Zero Standard V2.0 includes the guidance, criteria, and recommendations companies need to set science-based net-zero targets consistent with limiting global temperature rise to 1.5°C.
V2.0 is a full revision of the standard, and it intends to help companies secure senior leadership buy-in and establish net-zero governance that supports target setting and implementation; assess and select a target base year; set near-term science-based targets for rapid, deep emissions cuts across Scopes 1, 2, and 3; understand and apply a hierarchy of implementation actions; report and assess target progress; and ensure ongoing emissions responsibility.
A wave of companies are committing to “net zero," but what does being a net zero business mean in practice? The Science Based Targets initiative has released their definition and framework for reaching net zero, and it includes allowances for up to 10% of a company's emissions profile to be removed as offsets. If you are looking for clear and appropriate criteria for "net zero" best practices that will advance you beyond this, this resource from Watershed explains how net zero differentiates from "carbon neutral" and will help you to understand the actions that are required for your company to become a genuine "net zero company."
The Taskforce on Inequality and Social-Related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) is a global initiative that seeks to develop recommendations and guidance for businesses and financial institutions to identify, understand, and disclose people-related impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities. The aim of the TISFD is to incentivise business and financial practices that create stronger, more resilient societies and economies, and to support a more integrated approach to disclosures across people, climate, and nature.
The TISFD intends to make people-related issues visible to enable better decision-making, strengthen investor insights, and improve accountability to stakeholders. Towards achieving this, the TISFD Framework (Beta Version 0.1) has been released and is open for public consultation. It provides conceptual foundations, proposes general requirements, and features draft disclosure recommendations. It also identifies areas for future development, such as recommended metrics and implementation guidance. The framework supports harmonisation across global standards (including ISSB, GRI, and ESRS), and enables interoperability with key climate and nature frameworks, like the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD, which IFRS S1 and S2 have integrated and built upon) and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
Indigenous peoples have a unique and important place in the global community, and yet so many industries and organisations continue to struggle with positive and respectful engagement and co-creating mutually-beneficial business agreements. The guide is non-prescriptive, and offers insights, examples, and suggestions for a diverse range of issues and contexts that can help you to engage in meaningful and effective consultation and partnership with Indigenous Peoples on a local level, and to adapt the principles and practices for distinct situations.
Part I explores specific business actions, such as free, prior and informed consent and grievance mechanisms, and Part II explores the UN Declaration Rights in detail, such as those related to culture, language, land, and natural resources, with suggested practical actions and examples.
The CSRD is intended to bring sustainability reporting up to the same quality and control bar as financial reporting, and companies will need to elevate the breadth and robustness of their ESG reporting to comply with these new regulations. Watershed has created this short guide to help you to better understand the CSRD’s technical rules, also known as the European Sustainability Reporting Standards. These rules include topics such as general disclosures, social and environmental standards, and governance standards. It also unpacks how the CSRD define "double materiality" and outlines timeframes and other CSRD reporting expectations.
This explainer series from Shift offer practical guidance that can help your company to meet the requirements of the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). The series aims to support companies in building due diligence processes that are compliant with the CSDDD, effective in advancing positive outcomes for nature and communities, and issuing sustainability-related disclosures under the CSRD. Each explainer focuses on a key aspect of effective CSDDD implementation - such as identifying and prioritising impacts on people and the environment - and explores key areas of interpretation, practical tips, and common pitfalls to avoid.
This article from the IFRS can help you understand what the new ISSB standards are about. The inaugural IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards were issued to provide a global baseline of sustainability-related disclosures for the capital markets. IFRS S1 requires companies to communicate the sustainability-related risks and opportunities they face over the short, medium, and long term, and IFRS S2 sets out specific climate-related disclosures and is designed to be used with IFRS S1. This article provides a useful overview for Sustainability and Finance teams that will be making use of the new standards in their corporate reporting.
This guidance from the WBCSD CFO Network can help you to better meet modern sustainability reporting requirements and respond more credibly to requests for sustainability performance information from investors, banks and regulators. It provides a side-by-side analysis of two new sustainability disclosure standards: the IFRS standard from the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the European Sustainability Reporting Standard. It explains how to set up reporting; identifies what needs to be reported; explains how to ensure credible disclosures; and more. This guidance may be especially useful to CFOs and finance teams.
This guide was created by the European Commission, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG), and the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS) to help you better understand how to comply with both the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB Standards). It examines and explains the general alignment and interoperability between these reporting requirements, and outlines the high level of interoperability on climate-related disclosures. It also clarifies differences that must be addressed to ensure compliance between them. This guidance will be most useful to sustainability and compliance teams whose organisations must report under both sets of standards.
This set of ESG implementation principles from ISO can help you to better navigate the complex landscape of environmental, social, and governance expectations and to implement and embed ESG practices within your organisation. Developed through a collaborative cohort that includes the British Standards Institution (BSI), the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), and the Brazilian Association of Technical Standards (ABNT), the principles incorporate input from over 1,900 industry experts across 128 countries. They provide a high-level structure for integrating existing ESG requirements; establishing measurable and comparable key performance indicators; assessing maturity in ESG practices; and facilitating consistent, comparable, and reliable ESG reporting.
Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) play an important role in engaging corporations, building trust and relationships, and sharing knowledge, but is it appropriate for MSIs to protect human rights, detect abuses, and hold corporations accountable? This report from MSI Integrity studies the effectiveness and impacts of forty standard-setting MSIs in upholding and protecting human rights. It researches all elements of how MSIs operate and provides key insights into topics including stakeholder participation; standards and scope; monitoring and compliance; and impact. This report can help you to apply a critical lens to the limitations of voluntary regulation and to envision more effective strategies for protecting human rights.
This comprehensive database from the International Trade Centre (ITC) provides free, accessible, verified, and transparent information on over 300 standards related to a wide range of sustainability topics, including worker rights, environmental protection, and business ethics. ITC also provides a Standards Map toolkit, which will help you to find information about voluntary sustainability standards, codes of conduct, audit protocols, reporting frameworks, and company programs on sustainability.
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