Climate Change and Business Opportunity: When Risk Meets Investment

by Saiqa Ane Qureshi, Staff Writer, FWSF MarCom Committee

Climate change and the growth of the green economy are not “new news,” but there have been updates and modifications to norms that can support financial markets and investors in those areas. The SASB Standards enable organizations to provide industry-based disclosure about sustainability related risks and opportunities that might affect cash flow, access to finance or cost of capital. They cover 77 industries and use evidence-based research, broad and balance participation from companies, investors and subject matter experts and have oversight from the SASB standards board. As of 2022 they became part of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).

Climate change and finance

The fundamental core is that sustainability can be financially material and therefore critical  to assessing a company’s long-term value, particularly for investors. To provide industry specific standards, SASB bridges the gap between companies and investors by creating a structured and consistent framework for reporting, focused on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) information. 

There at three main pillars:

  • Financial Materiality: These standards support investors to provide clear, consistent, and comparable information on the sustainability issues that could affect a company's financial condition, operating performance, or risk profile.
  • Industry Specificity: The financial relevance of a sustainability issue varies significantly by industry, and are customized by 77 different industries, focused on issues for a typical company within each sector.
  • Decision-useful information for investors: The primary audience for SASB disclosures is investors and others providing financial capital. The goal is to provide them with the standardized data they need to assess and compare companies' performance on financially material sustainability issues

The SASB standards focus on market demand, evidence based research, stakeholder consultation, standardized and comparable metrics, and alignment with existing reporting. 

REFERENCES

https://via.library.depaul.edu/business_etd/22/
https://sasb.ifrs.org/research/
https://sasb.ifrs.org/standards/ 

From Connections Newsletter (Food for Thought): October 2025

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