Intro and Standardized ESG Reporting

Brian Sands

Principal / Innovation Sector Manager

HKS

LEEDuser Basic Member

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March 25, 2022

Hello Fellow Green Guru Members: I am pleased to be a new member of the Sustainable Community Design Leaders (SCDL) forum, and look forward to learning and contributing here. Also, in case you missed it, this week there were two important steps forward towards an eventual standardized Environmental-Social-Governance (ESG) reporting system which is great news for the unified implementation of such a system, and inevitably will create pressure for improvement and will also drive better investment decisions and policies. First, Caroline Crenshaw, Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC), announced that the SEC it is considering introducing one of the broadest ESG data disclosure mandates ever introduced to corporations across the U.S. (link to fact sheet here and PDF attached). Second, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced an agreement to coordinate activities by their respective standard-setting boards, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and the Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB). These actions should eventually drive meaningful and significant improvements in ESG in the U.S. and globally which is very welcome and exciting.

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Nicole DeNamur

Owner

Sustainable Strategies

LEEDuser Basic Member

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Fri, 03/25/2022 - 18:36

Hi Everyone - to add to Brian's post, there are many ESG metrics that relate to the built environment (both on the risk and opportunity side) and quite a few ways that sustainable (and healthy, and resilient) buildings can contribute to strong ESG reporting. Additionally, the SEC's announcement on Monday included *proposed* rulemaking, which means that the rules are currently proceeding through a public comment period. You (or your firms) can submit comments via the below SEC website, where you can also review the comments that have been submitted to date. There were numerous substantive comments submitted at the SEC's initial invitation, which informed the current proposed rules; however, currently, there are not many substantive comments, though it has only been a few days. That said, hopefully companies will start to weigh in with helpful suggestions and ways that the final rules can be crafted and revised, to drive meaningful change (as opposed to paperwork or greenwashing). Review comments: https://www.sec.gov/comments/s7-10-22/s71022.htm (you can also access the full, 506 page proposed rule via the link on the right). You can submit comments here: https://www.sec.gov/rules/proposed.shtml (it is a little hard to find, but click on the "Submit comments on S7-10-22"). If folks are interested or have questions, I'd be happy to help, share more resources or even prepare a 101 lunch and learn. There is quite a bit of information out there, and it can be difficult to sift through. Hoping others also contribute as this is a pretty important topic that crosses virtually all industries. Nicole