A framework designed to help companies report environmental information in annual reports has been published for consultation.
The original reporting framework by the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), a consortium of businesses and environmental organisations, was published in 2010.
It focused on the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to companies’ strategies and financial performance, and aimed to encourage investors to recognise that economic and financial stability is dependent on a healthy environment .
The framework has now been updated to provide guidance on reporting environmental information, with particular emphasis on natural capital. The draft also provides information on the characterisation, measurement and the reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and water as well as commodities linked to deforestation, such as palm oil and beef.
The EU non-financial reporting Directive is taken into account in the revised framework, which requires large companies to report environmental impacts as part of their mainstream annual financial reporting. The Directive was adopted in September.
The latest version of the framework cross-references other reporting initiatives, including the Carbon Disclosure Project, Global Reporting Initiative and CEO Water Mandate.
A spokesperson for the CDSB said: “We don’t want to create something new, we just want to bring it together into one document.”
The consultation is open till the 14 December 2014 and is available here. The CDSB is hoping to launch the final framework in March 2015.
