On March 24, 2022 the IFRS Foundation (the Foundation) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) published a press release announcing “a collaboration agreement under which their respective standard-setting boards, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB), will seek to coordinate their work programmes and standard-setting activities.” I can’t tell you how excited I was to read this! I must also admit I was rather surprised and that this came out of the blue to me. I’m someone who tries to keep his ears to the ground in the land of sustainability reporting standard setting.

I was not surprised about the immediate reaction to a simple two-page press release announcing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which “represents the latest development in efforts to consolidate or align multiple international initiatives covering sustainability reporting into a more cohesive approach for the benefit of companies, investors and society at large.” The GSSB, focused on multi-stakeholder sustainability reporting, will collaborate with the ISSB whose mission is to develop a global baseline of investor-focused sustainability disclosures for the capital markets. To make this collaboration a substantive one, each organization “will join the each other’s consultative bodies related to sustainability reporting activities.” To be clear, this is a collaboration agreement, not a merger.

Source link for this article