Sustainability Info Will Be Required in SEC Filings

An organization called the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, or SASB (pronounced saz-bee), has been accredited to set standards for how publicly-listed companies will need to disclose sustainability information in their 10-K filings. SASB will invoke the familiar concept of “materiality” as articulated by the courts – i.e. what a reasonable investor would find important – as it begins the process of setting the standards, sector-by-sector, for 10 defined sectors that embrace 88 industry categories, essentially covering all publicly-held companies. So far, standards for the health care sector have been published, but research and vetting for five more are expected to be completed by early 2015. A project covering some of the same ground is in progress through the European Commission.