Oral Presentations - Session 1A: UC 326
Presentation Type
Presentation
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Dr. Kent Swift
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Department of Accounting and Finance
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Businesses today face more performance risks than ever before. Progressively unjust social spheres, severe environmental disruptions, and corporate governance scandals are just a few issues afflicting the modern business environment. The demand is high for corporate disclosure of these and other sustainability matters. Currently, businesses are not subject to any mandatory sustainability reporting requirements. A number of sustainability reporting frameworks have therefore emerged to help businesses report on sustainability performance. The US nonprofit Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) offers one such framework. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the SASB’s framework and provisional standards for its ability to promote decision-useful sustainability reports, where decision-usefulness is a function of the following reporting principles: materiality; stakeholder inclusiveness; context; completeness and accuracy; measurability and verifiability; and transparency. Sustainability reporting is a nascent field. As such, emergent sustainability reporting frameworks have yet to be critically assessed for their value and effectiveness. This study highlights the SASB framework’s significant concepts and values, thereby clarifying its advantages and disadvantages for use in US business sustainability reporting.
Category
Social Sciences
PowerPoint Presentation
Sustainability Reporting: An Evaluation of the SASB Framework
Businesses today face more performance risks than ever before. Progressively unjust social spheres, severe environmental disruptions, and corporate governance scandals are just a few issues afflicting the modern business environment. The demand is high for corporate disclosure of these and other sustainability matters. Currently, businesses are not subject to any mandatory sustainability reporting requirements. A number of sustainability reporting frameworks have therefore emerged to help businesses report on sustainability performance. The US nonprofit Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) offers one such framework. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the SASB’s framework and provisional standards for its ability to promote decision-useful sustainability reports, where decision-usefulness is a function of the following reporting principles: materiality; stakeholder inclusiveness; context; completeness and accuracy; measurability and verifiability; and transparency. Sustainability reporting is a nascent field. As such, emergent sustainability reporting frameworks have yet to be critically assessed for their value and effectiveness. This study highlights the SASB framework’s significant concepts and values, thereby clarifying its advantages and disadvantages for use in US business sustainability reporting.