I'm tasked with developing my company's first sustainability report. What are the best frameworks to follow?

Developing your company's first sustainability report is an exciting milestone. The key is choosing the framework that matches your geographic footprint, stakeholder expectations, and reporting maturity.

The industry standard frameworks to consider include:

• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) : The gold standard for impact-focused sustainability reporting. It is the most widely used framework globally and focuses on how your company impacts the world (double materiality, encompassing both environmental and social impacts). Best if your goal is broad stakeholder transparency (employees, NGOs, customers, and local communities). You can explore guidelines on the GRI Standards Website.
• International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB / IFRS S1 & S2) : The emerging baseline for investor-focused financial disclosures. It integrates older frameworks like TCFD (climate risk) and SASB (industry-specific metrics). Best if your primary audience is investors, lenders, and financial markets, or if you operate in jurisdictions adopting IFRS sustainability rules. Learn more via the IFRS ISSB Overview.
• Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD / ESRS) : Mandatory for a vast range of EU-based and international companies doing significant business in the European Union. It relies heavily on "double materiality" (both financial risks and outward impacts). If you fall under EU regulatory scope, this is non-negotiable.
• Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) : Essential for carbon accounting. Even if you use GRI or ISSB as your main narrative framework, you will almost certainly use the GHG Protocol Standards to calculate your Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions.
• Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) : A popular disclosure system if customers or supply-chain partners are requesting environmental data, particularly around climate change, water security, and forests.

To help narrow down which of these frameworks makes sense for your first report, tell me:

• What is your company's primary geographic location and where do you do business?
• Who is your main target audience for this report (e.g., investors, customers, internal leadership, or regulators)?
• Does your company currently track any greenhouse gas emissions data?

For a company’s first sustainability report, the best approach is usually not to pick every available framework, but to choose a core framework based on who will read the report, where you operate, and what decisions the report needs to support. Many companies combine frameworks because they answer different questions.

Recommended core frameworks

1. Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) — best starting point for most first reports

Best for: A broad sustainability report covering environmental, social, and governance impacts.

GRI is often the strongest choice for a first-time report because it helps companies explain:

• How the company affects people, communities, and the environment
• Material sustainability topics
• Policies, programs, targets, and performance metrics
• Stakeholder engagement

A typical GRI-aligned first report includes:

• Company sustainability strategy
• Governance and accountability
• Materiality assessment
• Climate and energy
• Waste and circularity
• Water (if relevant)
• Workforce and human rights
• Ethics and compliance

GRI uses an impact materiality perspective: what sustainability issues your company significantly impacts, even if they do not immediately affect financial performance.

My default recommendation for a first sustainability report: Start with GRI.

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2. International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) (IFRS S1/S2) — best if investors are the main audience

Best for: Public companies, companies seeking investment, lenders, or capital-market credibility.

ISSB focuses on sustainability information that could affect enterprise value, especially:

• Sustainability-related risks and opportunities
• Governance
• Strategy
• Risk management
• Metrics and targets

Its climate standard (IFRS S2) builds on the former TCFD approach, including the four pillars of governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics/targets.

Choose ISSB if your leadership is asking:

• “How does climate change affect our business?”
• “What sustainability risks matter financially?”
• “What do investors need to know?”

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3. Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) — best for industry-specific investor metrics

Best for: Companies that want comparable metrics tailored to their sector.

SASB provides industry-specific disclosure topics and metrics. It is now maintained under the ISSB umbrella and is commonly used alongside ISSB reporting.

Examples:

• A software company may focus on data security and energy use
• A manufacturer may focus on emissions, materials, and worker safety
• A financial institution may focus on financed emissions and responsible lending

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4. Greenhouse Gas Protocol — essential for emissions reporting

Best for: Any company reporting carbon emissions.

If your report includes:

• Scope 1 emissions (direct emissions)
• Scope 2 emissions (purchased energy)
• Scope 3 emissions (value chain emissions)

you will likely want GHG Protocol as your emissions accounting foundation.

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5. Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) — useful climate structure, but increasingly absorbed into ISSB

Best for: Companies building climate-risk disclosures.

TCFD’s structure remains influential, but the ISSB standards incorporate its core approach, so many companies now move directly toward ISSB rather than producing a separate TCFD report.

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A practical first-report combination

For most companies creating their first sustainability report:

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Suggested process for your first report

1. Define the audience

• Employees?
• Customers?
• Investors?
• Regulators?
• Communities?

2. Run a materiality assessment

• Identify the sustainability issues that matter most.
• Prioritize topics where your impacts and stakeholder expectations are highest.

3. Choose reporting boundaries

• Which facilities?
• Which subsidiaries?
• Which supply-chain impacts?

4. Establish baseline data

• Energy use
• Emissions
• Waste
• Workforce metrics
• Safety
• Diversity/equity metrics (where applicable)

5. Set measurable targets

• Avoid vague commitments.
• Include timelines, owners, and measurement methods.

6. Map your report to frameworks

• A company can publish a readable sustainability report while including an appendix showing GRI/ISSB/SASB alignment.

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If this is your company’s first-ever report, I would generally recommend building a GRI-aligned sustainability report with GHG Protocol emissions accounting, then adding ISSB/SASB elements if investors or regulators require them.

A useful next step would be to decide based on your company’s industry, size, geography, and audience—those factors can change the best framework choice significantly.

For most companies creating their first sustainability report:

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Suggested process for your first report

1. Define the audience

• Employees?
• Customers?
• Investors?
• Regulators?
• Communities?

2. Run a materiality assessment

• Identify the sustainability issues that matter most.
• Prioritize topics where your impacts and stakeholder expectations are highest.

3. Choose reporting boundaries

• Which facilities?
• Which subsidiaries?
• Which supply-chain impacts?

4. Establish baseline data

• Energy use
• Emissions
• Waste
• Workforce metrics
• Safety
• Diversity/equity metrics (where applicable)

5. Set measurable targets

• Avoid vague commitments.
• Include timelines, owners, and measurement methods.

6. Map your report to frameworks

• A company can publish a readable sustainability report while including an appendix showing GRI/ISSB/SASB alignment.

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Developing your company's first sustainability report is an exciting milestone. The reporting landscape can feel like an alphabet soup, but most frameworks actually complement each other depending on who your audience is and where you operate.

The top frameworks to consider are categorized by their primary focus:

1. The Gold Standard for Impact: GRI (Global Reporting Initiative)

• Best for: Multi-stakeholder transparency (employees, communities, NGOs, customers, and investors).
• Why use it: GRI is the most widely used framework globally. It focuses on double materiality —how your company impacts the environment, economy, and society. It’s a great baseline for a first-timer because it tells you what topics to measure and how to report on them comprehensively.

2. The Gold Standard for Investors: ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board)

• Best for: Investor-focused financial materiality (IFRS S1 and S2 standards).
• Why use it: Formed under the IFRS Foundation, ISSB builds on the legacy of SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) and TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures). It focuses strictly on how sustainability issues (especially climate risks) impact your company’s financial performance and enterprise value. Essential if your investors are demanding decision-useful data.

3. The Heavy-Hitting Regional Mandate: EU CSRD / ESRS

• Best for: Companies operating in or with significant business ties to the European Union.
• Why use it: The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and its European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are legally binding for a massive scope of European and international companies. If your company falls under its scope, compliance is mandatory, and it requires rigorous third-party assurance.

4. For Specific Carbon & Climate Goals: SBTi (Science Based Targets initiative)

• Best for: Validating greenhouse gas reduction targets.
• Why use it: While not a full "report" framework on its own, getting your Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions targets validated by SBTi adds immense credibility to the environmental section of your report.

How to Choose for Your First Report

Don't try to adopt everything at once. For a first report, a common approach is to use GRI as your backbone for general stakeholder impact, while weaving in ISSB/SASB metrics where financial materiality applies to your industry.

To help narrow down the best path, tell me:

• Where is your company located and where do you have major operations or customers?
• What is your industry (e.g., manufacturing, tech, financial services)?
• Who is the primary audience for this report (investors, customers, or internal leadership)?

If this is your company’s first sustainability report, I’d avoid trying to “pick one framework” and instead build the report around a primary framework plus targeted supplements. The right choice depends mainly on who needs the report and whether you expect regulatory/investor reporting requirements.

The main frameworks

1. GRI — my default recommendation

For a first report, GRI is probably the most intuitive place to start. It is designed around an organization's impacts on the economy, environment and people, rather than solely what matters financially to investors. GRI has Universal, Sector and Topic Standards, which lets you build up the report without having to tackle everything at once.

A GRI-based report can cover things such as:

• Greenhouse-gas emissions and energy
• Water and waste
• Biodiversity
• Employee health, safety and diversity
• Human rights
• Supply-chain impacts
• Community impacts
• Business ethics and governance

Why I'd choose it for a first report: it encourages you to understand your company's actual sustainability impacts, rather than turning the exercise into a collection of investor KPIs.

2. ISSB — increasingly important for investor-facing reporting

The ISSB's IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 are focused on sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect a company's cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital.

• IFRS S1 — general sustainability-related financial disclosures
• IFRS S2 — climate-related disclosures

They use four familiar areas: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics & targets.

I'd put ISSB higher on your list if your report is primarily intended for investors, lenders, analysts, or the board.

3. SASB — add industry-specific metrics

SASB is particularly useful because sustainability risks differ dramatically by industry. Its standards identify industry-specific sustainability issues and metrics that are potentially relevant to investors. There are standards covering 77 industries.

You don't necessarily need a standalone "SASB report." In fact, ISSB incorporates SASB's industry-based approach, and IFRS S1 requires companies to consider the SASB Standards when identifying relevant industry-specific disclosures.

4. ESRS — important if Europe is involved

If your company falls within the scope of EU sustainability-reporting requirements, ESRS becomes a regulatory consideration rather than simply a voluntary framework.

ESRS is distinctive because it uses double materiality: you consider both how sustainability matters affect the company and how the company affects people and the environment.

One important 2026 development: the European Commission adopted revised ESRS on July 3, 2026, although EFRAG notes that the revised standards become legally effective only after publication in the EU Official Journal and completion of the scrutiny period.

So if Europe is relevant to your business, I'd assess your regulatory scope before designing the report around GRI alone.

What I'd do in your position

For a typical company producing its first voluntary sustainability report, I'd use this architecture:

Primary framework: GRI Standards

Investor/financial lens: ISSB S1 + S2, where relevant

Industry metrics: SASB/ISSB industry guidance

Regulatory overlay: ESRS, if your company is subject to applicable EU requirements

That gives you a report that serves both broad stakeholders and investors without creating four completely separate reporting exercises.

A practical first-report structure

I'd structure the actual report roughly like this:

1. CEO/leadership statement
2. About the company
3. Sustainability strategy
4. Governance and accountability
5. Materiality assessment
6. Climate and energy
7. Environment
8. People and human rights
9. Customers/products
10. Supply chain
11. Ethics and responsible business
12. Goals, targets and performance
13. Data methodology and boundaries
14. GRI/ISSB/other framework index

The materiality assessment is the critical piece. Don't start by asking, "What data can we report?" Start with:

What sustainability issues could significantly affect our business, and what significant impacts does our business have on people and the environment? Then use the applicable framework(s) to determine what you disclose about those issues.

One important recommendation

Don't make your first report a 150-page ESG encyclopedia. A credible, focused 40–70 page report with clearly defined metrics, boundaries, targets and methodology is much better than a huge report full of vague commitments.

And establish a data-control process from day one. Treat emissions, employee, safety, waste, diversity, supply-chain and other sustainability data increasingly like financial reporting data: define owners, calculation methodologies, evidence, controls and approval processes.

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, where you operate (especially whether you have EU operations), and who the primary audience is (customers, investors, employees, regulators, etc.), I can recommend a specific framework combination and give you a first-year sustainability-reporting roadmap, including the exact disclosures/KPIs I'd prioritize.

One important 2026 development: the European Commission adopted revised ESRS on July 3, 2026, although EFRAG notes that the revised standards become legally effective only after publication in the EU Official Journal and completion of the scrutiny period.

So if Europe is relevant to your business, I'd assess your regulatory scope before designing the report around GRI alone.

What I'd do in your position

For a typical company producing its first voluntary sustainability report, I'd use this architecture:

Primary framework: GRI Standards

Investor/financial lens: ISSB S1 + S2, where relevant

Industry metrics: SASB/ISSB industry guidance

Regulatory overlay: ESRS, if your company is subject to applicable EU requirements

That gives you a report that serves both broad stakeholders and investors without creating four completely separate reporting exercises.

A practical first-report structure

I'd structure the actual report roughly like this:

1. CEO/leadership statement
2. About the company
3. Sustainability strategy
4. Governance and accountability
5. Materiality assessment
6. Climate and energy
7. Environment
8. People and human rights
9. Customers/products
10. Supply chain
11. Ethics and responsible business
12. Goals, targets and performance
13. Data methodology and boundaries
14. GRI/ISSB/other framework index

The materiality assessment is the critical piece. Don't start by asking, "What data can we report?" Start with:

What sustainability issues could significantly affect our business, and what significant impacts does our business have on people and the environment? Then use the applicable framework(s) to determine what you disclose about those issues.

One important recommendation

Don't make your first report a 150-page ESG encyclopedia. A credible, focused 40–70 page report with clearly defined metrics, boundaries, targets and methodology is much better than a huge report full of vague commitments.

And establish a data-control process from day one. Treat emissions, employee, safety, waste, diversity, supply-chain and other sustainability data increasingly like financial reporting data: define owners, calculation methodologies, evidence, controls and approval processes.

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, where you operate (especially whether you have EU operations), and who the primary audience is (customers, investors, employees, regulators, etc.), I can recommend a specific framework combination and give you a first-year sustainability-reporting roadmap, including the exact disclosures/KPIs I'd prioritize.

The best frameworks to follow for your company's first sustainability report are GRI, SASB, and the ESRS , depending on your location, industry, and target audience.

Because this is your first report, you do not need to invent your own metrics; instead, you should rely on these established international standards to build credibility and structure your data.

📋 The Core Sustainability Frameworks

• GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) : Best for broad impact reporting. It focuses on how your company impacts the economy, environment, and people (outward impact). It is the most widely used framework globally for general audiences.
• SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) : Best for investor appeal. Now part of the IFRS Foundation, SASB provides 77 industry-specific standards focusing on financially material ESG issues (inward impact).
• ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) : Mandatory if you have European operations. It enforces the principle of "double materiality," meaning you must report on both your financial risks and your public impact.
• TCFD / ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board) : Best for climate risk. ISSB has consolidated TCFD and SASB into global baselines (IFRS S1 and S2) specifically meant to show capital markets how climate change affects your cash flow.

📊 Choosing the Right Framework for Your Business

💡 Step-by-Step Execution Plan for Beginners

To help you hit the ground running, I can generate a customizable Sustainability Report Template (in Markdown or Word format) containing standard disclosure tables, data collection trackers, and stakeholder survey outlines.

Would you like me to build this starter template for you, and if so, what industry is your company in?

If this is your company’s first sustainability report, I’d avoid trying to comply with every framework at once. The best approach is usually to pick one primary reporting standard, then use a few complementary standards where they add value.

My recommended stack

1. GRI — my default choice for a first report

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is probably the best starting point if your goal is to produce a report that tells stakeholders what your company’s sustainability impacts are and how you are managing them. GRI describes its Standards as a flexible framework for sustainability and ESG reporting.

GRI is particularly useful for topics such as:

• Greenhouse-gas emissions and energy
• Water and waste
• Employee health, safety and development
• Diversity and human rights
• Supply-chain impacts
• Community impacts
• Business ethics and governance

For a first report, I'd make GRI your reporting backbone unless there is a strong regulatory or investor-driven reason to do otherwise.

2. ISSB — increasingly important for investor-focused reporting

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) has established IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 as a global baseline for sustainability-related financial disclosures. They focus on sustainability risks and opportunities that could reasonably affect a company's prospects, including its cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital.

The distinction is important:

GRI asks:

What impacts does our company have on the economy, environment and people? ISSB asks:

Which sustainability-related issues could affect the company's financial prospects? Those aren't competing questions—they're complementary.

ISSB uses four major disclosure areas:

1. Governance
2. Strategy
3. Risk management
4. Metrics and targets

If your audience includes investors, banks, insurers or a board that wants financially relevant ESG information, I'd strongly consider building your report so that it can eventually satisfy both GRI and ISSB.

3. SASB — add industry specificity

SASB is now maintained by the IFRS Foundation and provides industry-specific sustainability disclosure topics and metrics across 77 industries.

For example, the sustainability issues that matter most for a software company can be very different from those for an airline, bank, food manufacturer or oil company.

SASB is particularly valuable because it answers:

Which sustainability metrics are actually relevant to our particular industry? ISSB explicitly incorporates SASB concepts and requires companies applying IFRS S1 to consider SASB Standards when identifying relevant industry-specific risks and opportunities.

4. ESRS — important if you're exposed to EU requirements

The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are the major framework to consider if your company falls within the scope of EU sustainability-reporting requirements.

ESRS is considerably more demanding than what I'd recommend casually adopting for a first voluntary report. It uses a double-materiality perspective—looking both at how sustainability issues affect the company and how the company's activities affect people and the environment.

EFRAG maintains the ESRS standards and implementation resources; its Knowledge Hub currently includes revised ESRS materials.

So if you're a U.S. company with no EU reporting exposure, I wouldn't choose ESRS as your starting framework simply because it sounds comprehensive.

5. CDP — useful for environmental disclosure

CDP is less of an all-purpose sustainability-reporting framework and more of an environmental disclosure system. Its 2026 corporate disclosure covers environmental issues and provides questionnaires, guidance and scoring methodologies.

It's worth considering if customers, investors or other stakeholders are asking you about:

• Climate
• GHG emissions
• Water
• Forests/commodities
• Environmental risks

What I'd do for a first report

I'd build it in this order:

1. Start with a materiality assessment

Identify the sustainability issues that are genuinely important to your business and stakeholders.

2. Use GRI as the broad reporting structure

This gives you the "impact" side of the story.

3. Layer in ISSB/SASB

Identify sustainability risks and opportunities that could materially affect the business financially, using your industry-specific SASB guidance.

4. Build a strong GHG inventory

For emissions, use the GHG Protocol rather than inventing your own methodology. This is especially important because emissions data tends to become one of the most scrutinized parts of a sustainability report.

5. Establish a KPI table

For each material topic, have something like:

6. Be transparent about what's missing

For a first report, it's perfectly acceptable to say:

"This is our first year of formal sustainability reporting. Certain data sets are not yet available at the required level of quality or consistency. We have identified these gaps and established a roadmap for improving data collection and reporting." That's much more credible than producing impressive-looking numbers with questionable methodology.

The simplest decision rule

I'd use this:

• "We want our first comprehensive sustainability report." → GRI
• "Investors are the primary audience." → ISSB + SASB
• "We need to meet EU requirements." → ESRS
• "Customers/investors are asking for climate data." → Add CDP
• "We want a robust report that serves multiple audiences." → GRI + ISSB/SASB
• "We're starting from zero and have limited resources." → GRI, but start with a focused set of material topics rather than trying to report everything

The particularly attractive combination today is GRI + ISSB/SASB: GRI gives you the broader impact perspective, while ISSB gives you the investor/financial-materiality perspective. The ISSB itself says its standards are designed to work with GRI and to provide a common baseline of information.

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, whether you're public/private, where you operate, and who the report is primarily for (customers, investors, employees, regulators, etc.), I can recommend a specific framework stack and a proposed table of contents for your first report.

3. Layer in ISSB/SASB

Identify sustainability risks and opportunities that could materially affect the business financially, using your industry-specific SASB guidance.

4. Build a strong GHG inventory

For emissions, use the GHG Protocol rather than inventing your own methodology. This is especially important because emissions data tends to become one of the most scrutinized parts of a sustainability report.

5. Establish a KPI table

For each material topic, have something like:

6. Be transparent about what's missing

For a first report, it's perfectly acceptable to say:

"This is our first year of formal sustainability reporting. Certain data sets are not yet available at the required level of quality or consistency. We have identified these gaps and established a roadmap for improving data collection and reporting." That's much more credible than producing impressive-looking numbers with questionable methodology.

The simplest decision rule

I'd use this:

• "We want our first comprehensive sustainability report." → GRI
• "Investors are the primary audience." → ISSB + SASB
• "We need to meet EU requirements." → ESRS
• "Customers/investors are asking for climate data." → Add CDP
• "We want a robust report that serves multiple audiences." → GRI + ISSB/SASB
• "We're starting from zero and have limited resources." → GRI, but start with a focused set of material topics rather than trying to report everything

The particularly attractive combination today is GRI + ISSB/SASB: GRI gives you the broader impact perspective, while ISSB gives you the investor/financial-materiality perspective. The ISSB itself says its standards are designed to work with GRI and to provide a common baseline of information.

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, whether you're public/private, where you operate, and who the report is primarily for (customers, investors, employees, regulators, etc.), I can recommend a specific framework stack and a proposed table of contents for your first report.

The best sustainability reporting frameworks to follow depend on your company’s geography, industry, and target audience. Navigating your first sustainability report can feel overwhelming, but you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

For a company developing its first report, a combination of GRI (for broad impact) and SASB (for financial materiality) is the global gold standard for voluntary reporting. If your company operates or raises capital in Europe, the legally mandated ESRS must take priority.

📊 The Core Sustainability Frameworks

• GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) : Best for broad stakeholder impact. It focuses on how your company affects the economy, environment, and people. It is the most widely used framework globally for first-time reporters.
• SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) : Best for investors. Now part of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) under the IFRS Foundation, SASB provides 77 distinct industry-specific standards focusing strictly on financially material ESG issues.
• ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards) : Best for EU compliance. If your company falls under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), this framework is mandatory and enforces "double materiality" (both financial and stakeholder impact).
• TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) : Best for climate risk. Also fully integrated into the new ISSB standards, it focuses specifically on governance, strategy, and risk management regarding climate change.

➡️ Framework Comparison Matrix

💡 Step-by-Step Implementation Strategy

Would you like me to generate a customizable Materiality Assessment Tracker or a Sustainability Data Collection Template in a downloadable Excel or PDF format to help you start gathering your company's data?

Yes. For a first sustainability report, I’d avoid trying to follow every ESG framework at once. The best approach is usually to choose one primary reporting framework, then layer in the standards that matter for investors, climate, and regulation.

My recommended framework stack

1. GRI Standards — best primary framework for a first report

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is probably the best starting point if your goal is a comprehensive sustainability report covering your company's impacts on people, environment, and the economy.

GRI uses:

• Universal Standards — applies to all organizations
• Sector Standards — where applicable
• Topic Standards — e.g., climate, biodiversity, employment, human rights

It is designed around identifying your organization's material impacts, rather than simply reporting whatever ESG metrics you already happen to have.

I'd use GRI as your backbone if this is your company's first standalone sustainability report.

2. ISSB / IFRS S1 & S2 — add this for investors and financial relevance

The International Sustainability Standards Board's IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 take a different perspective: they focus on sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could affect the company's cash flows, access to finance, or cost of capital.

• IFRS S1: broad sustainability-related financial disclosures
• IFRS S2: climate-related disclosures
• Both use the familiar pillars of governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics & targets
• IFRS S2 incorporates the TCFD architecture and requires Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions information using the GHG Protocol.

This is particularly valuable if you have institutional investors, lenders, a board focused on enterprise risk, or expect sustainability disclosure requirements to become relevant to your company.

3. GHG Protocol — use this for your emissions inventory

This isn't really a competing reporting framework; it's the standard I'd use for the carbon accounting underneath your report.

Build your inventory around:

• Scope 1 — direct emissions
• Scope 2 — purchased energy
• Scope 3 — value-chain emissions

IFRS S2 explicitly points companies to the GHG Protocol for measuring Scopes 1–3.

4. ESRS — important if you're subject to EU reporting requirements

The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are much more regulatory in nature and are associated with the EU's corporate sustainability reporting regime.

If your company is in scope of EU sustainability reporting requirements—or is part of a group that is—you should assess ESRS before designing your report. Otherwise, it may be unnecessarily burdensome for a first voluntary report.

The big concept to understand is double materiality: looking both at how sustainability issues affect the company and how the company affects people and the environment.

5. SASB — useful for industry-specific metrics

SASB is now part of the ISSB ecosystem. Rather than treating it as another standalone report, I'd use the relevant SASB industry guidance to identify metrics particularly relevant to your sector.

In fact, IFRS S1 requires companies to consider SASB Standards when identifying sustainability-related risks and opportunities.

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How I'd structure your first report

For most companies, I'd recommend:

GRI + GHG Protocol + ISSB/SASB

That gives you three complementary perspectives:

If you're subject to EU requirements, add ESRS and design the materiality process around it.

A practical first-report process

I wouldn't start by writing the report. I'd work through these steps:

1. Define reporting boundaries — entities, locations, operations and reporting year.
2. Identify stakeholders — employees, customers, investors, suppliers, communities, regulators, etc.
3. Conduct a materiality assessment — identify the sustainability topics that matter most.
4. Map material topics to GRI/SASB/ISSB requirements.
5. Create a data inventory — determine what data you have and where the gaps are.
6. Establish your GHG inventory using the GHG Protocol.
7. Set targets and KPIs where appropriate.
8. Build governance — who owns each metric, who reviews it, and ultimately who signs off.
9. Draft the report around the material topics, rather than around the framework itself.
10. Create a disclosure index showing exactly where each GRI/ISSB/etc. requirement is addressed.

A key lesson for a first report: don't try to make it look like a glossy ESG brochure. A credible report should be equally comfortable saying "we don't currently measure this" as it is saying "we reduced this by 25%." Establishing a baseline and being transparent about data gaps is much better than inventing precision.

If I were choosing for your company

If you tell me (1) your industry, (2) approximate company size, (3) where you're headquartered/operate, (4) whether you're public or private, and (5) who the main audience is—investors, customers, employees, regulators, etc., I can recommend a specific framework stack and a proposed table of contents for your first report, including which disclosures you should prioritize and which ones you can safely defer.

SASB is now part of the ISSB ecosystem. Rather than treating it as another standalone report, I'd use the relevant SASB industry guidance to identify metrics particularly relevant to your sector.

In fact, IFRS S1 requires companies to consider SASB Standards when identifying sustainability-related risks and opportunities.

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How I'd structure your first report

For most companies, I'd recommend:

GRI + GHG Protocol + ISSB/SASB

That gives you three complementary perspectives:

If you're subject to EU requirements, add ESRS and design the materiality process around it.

A practical first-report process

I wouldn't start by writing the report. I'd work through these steps:

1. Define reporting boundaries — entities, locations, operations and reporting year.
2. Identify stakeholders — employees, customers, investors, suppliers, communities, regulators, etc.
3. Conduct a materiality assessment — identify the sustainability topics that matter most.
4. Map material topics to GRI/SASB/ISSB requirements.
5. Create a data inventory — determine what data you have and where the gaps are.
6. Establish your GHG inventory using the GHG Protocol.
7. Set targets and KPIs where appropriate.
8. Build governance — who owns each metric, who reviews it, and ultimately who signs off.
9. Draft the report around the material topics, rather than around the framework itself.
10. Create a disclosure index showing exactly where each GRI/ISSB/etc. requirement is addressed.

A key lesson for a first report: don't try to make it look like a glossy ESG brochure. A credible report should be equally comfortable saying "we don't currently measure this" as it is saying "we reduced this by 25%." Establishing a baseline and being transparent about data gaps is much better than inventing precision.

If I were choosing for your company

If you tell me (1) your industry, (2) approximate company size, (3) where you're headquartered/operate, (4) whether you're public or private, and (5) who the main audience is—investors, customers, employees, regulators, etc., I can recommend a specific framework stack and a proposed table of contents for your first report, including which disclosures you should prioritize and which ones you can safely defer.

For a first sustainability report, I’d avoid trying to follow every ESG framework at once. The best approach is usually to choose one primary reporting standard and then layer in the frameworks your investors, customers, regulators, or industry require.

The main frameworks to consider

1. GRI — my default recommendation

GRI is probably where I'd start for a company's first comprehensive sustainability report.

Its focus is on the company's impacts on the economy, environment, and people, rather than solely on what matters financially to investors. GRI uses Universal, Sector, and Topic Standards, and has a well-established process for determining your material topics.

For a first report, I'd use:

• GRI 1: Foundation
• GRI 2: General Disclosures
• GRI 3: Material Topics
• Relevant GRI Sector Standards, if one exists for your industry
• Relevant Topic Standards — e.g., climate, energy, employment, occupational health and safety, waste, water, biodiversity, etc.

GRI is particularly useful if you want your report to answer "What impact does our company have, and how are we managing those impacts?" The current GRI system explicitly supports reporting across environmental, social and economic impacts.

2. ISSB — add this if investors matter

The ISSB's IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 standards take a different perspective: what sustainability-related risks and opportunities could affect the company's prospects, cash flows, access to finance, or cost of capital.

I'd strongly consider GRI + ISSB if you're a larger company, planning to raise capital, preparing for investor scrutiny, or want your sustainability reporting to mature into something closely connected to financial reporting.

There's actually a good reason to combine them: GRI and the IFRS Foundation explicitly describe their standards as complementary. GRI addresses impacts broadly, while ISSB focuses on sustainability-related financial information.

Think of it as:

GRI: What impacts does our company have on people and the planet? ISSB: What sustainability issues could materially affect our business and investors?

3. ESRS — if Europe is relevant

If your company is subject to EU sustainability reporting requirements, ESRS becomes much more important. It uses a double-materiality approach, considering both the company's impacts and the financial significance of sustainability matters.

I wouldn't adopt ESRS simply because it's comprehensive, though. First determine whether your company is actually in scope and what requirements apply to it.

4. SASB — particularly useful by industry

SASB is valuable because it gets much more specific about industry-relevant sustainability issues.

For example, the important sustainability metrics for a semiconductor manufacturer aren't necessarily the same as those for a bank or food company.

You don't necessarily need to produce a separate "SASB report." ISSB incorporates SASB concepts: IFRS S1 requires companies to consider SASB's industry-based topics and metrics when identifying relevant information.

What I'd recommend for your first report

Unless there's a regulatory or customer requirement pointing you elsewhere, I'd build the reporting architecture like this:

Primary framework: GRI Standards

Investor/financial layer: ISSB — IFRS S1 + IFRS S2

Industry layer: SASB

Climate data: GHG Protocol + IFRS S2

Specialized environmental disclosures, if material: CDP / TNFD

This avoids creating six separate reporting exercises. Instead, you build one underlying ESG data system and map the resulting information to multiple standards.

A practical first-report structure

I'd structure the actual report roughly as:

1. CEO/leadership statement
2. About the company
3. Sustainability strategy and governance
4. Materiality assessment
5. Climate and energy - Scope 1, 2 and relevant Scope 3 emissions

• Energy consumption
• Climate targets
• Climate risks and opportunities

6. People - Workforce

• Diversity/equity/inclusion
• Health & safety
• Training
• Human rights

7. Value chain - Supplier management

• Responsible sourcing
• Human rights

8. Environment - Water

• Waste
• Biodiversity
• Materials/circularity, where relevant

9. Business ethics and governance
10. Community/social impact
11. Goals, targets and progress
12. GRI/ISSB content indexes and methodology
13. Data tables and definitions

The crucial part is not to start by writing the report. Start by determining your material topics, then identify what data you need for each topic. GRI's methodology is particularly helpful here because material topics are tied to the organization's significant impacts.

One important distinction

I'd also separate three things that often get conflated:

Reporting framework → How you organize and disclose sustainability information Accounting/data methodology → How you actually calculate things such as emissions Disclosure questionnaire/rating → What a particular external stakeholder asks you to disclose

So, for example, GRI + ISSB can be your reporting architecture, while the GHG Protocol can underpin your emissions calculations and CDP can be a separate disclosure channel.

My recommendation in one sentence

If you don't yet have a specific regulatory or investor mandate, start with GRI, design the data collection so it can also satisfy ISSB/SASB requirements, and add specialized frameworks only where they're relevant to your business.

If you tell me your industry, approximate company size, where you operate (e.g. U.S./EU/global), whether you're public or private, and who the main audience is, I can recommend a much more specific framework combination and give you a first-year reporting roadmap and materiality assessment approach.

4. SASB — particularly useful by industry

SASB is valuable because it gets much more specific about industry-relevant sustainability issues.

For example, the important sustainability metrics for a semiconductor manufacturer aren't necessarily the same as those for a bank or food company.

You don't necessarily need to produce a separate "SASB report." ISSB incorporates SASB concepts: IFRS S1 requires companies to consider SASB's industry-based topics and metrics when identifying relevant information.

What I'd recommend for your first report

Unless there's a regulatory or customer requirement pointing you elsewhere, I'd build the reporting architecture like this:

Primary framework: GRI Standards

Investor/financial layer: ISSB — IFRS S1 + IFRS S2

Industry layer: SASB

Climate data: GHG Protocol + IFRS S2

Specialized environmental disclosures, if material: CDP / TNFD

This avoids creating six separate reporting exercises. Instead, you build one underlying ESG data system and map the resulting information to multiple standards.

A practical first-report structure

I'd structure the actual report roughly as:

1. CEO/leadership statement
2. About the company
3. Sustainability strategy and governance
4. Materiality assessment
5. Climate and energy - Scope 1, 2 and relevant Scope 3 emissions

• Energy consumption
• Climate targets
• Climate risks and opportunities

6. People - Workforce

• Diversity/equity/inclusion
• Health & safety
• Training
• Human rights

7. Value chain - Supplier management

• Responsible sourcing
• Human rights

8. Environment - Water

• Waste
• Biodiversity
• Materials/circularity, where relevant

9. Business ethics and governance
10. Community/social impact
11. Goals, targets and progress
12. GRI/ISSB content indexes and methodology
13. Data tables and definitions

The crucial part is not to start by writing the report. Start by determining your material topics, then identify what data you need for each topic. GRI's methodology is particularly helpful here because material topics are tied to the organization's significant impacts.

One important distinction

I'd also separate three things that often get conflated:

Developing your company's first sustainability report is an exciting milestone. Navigating the alphabet soup of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) frameworks can feel overwhelming, but choosing the right one depends heavily on your audience and geographical footprint.

The premier, globally recognized frameworks to consider for your first report include:

1. GRI (Global Reporting Initiative)
   • Primary Focus: Broad environmental and social impact ("double materiality"—how your company affects the world and how the world affects you).
   • Best For: Companies wanting a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder report that addresses employees, communities, NGOs, and customers.
   • Why choose it: It is the gold standard and most widely used global framework for sustainability reporting. Learn more via the GRI Standards Overview.
2. ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board - IFRS S1 & S2)
   • Primary Focus: Investor-grade, financially material sustainability and climate-related risks.
   • Best For: Public companies or businesses looking to align with global financial markets.
   • Why choose it: ISSB incorporates the older SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) metrics and TCFD climate disclosures, establishing an emerging global baseline for capital markets. Check out the details at the IFRS ISSB Portal.
3. CSRD / ESRS (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive / European Sustainability Reporting Standards)
   • Primary Focus: Rigorous, mandatory EU-style compliance covering a massive sweep of ESG data points.
   • Best For: Companies operating within the European Union or non-EU companies with significant EU revenue/subsidiaries.
   • Why choose it: If you fall under its scope, it's non-negotiable. Even if you don't, it represents the future direction of strict regulatory compliance.
4. CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project)
   • Primary Focus: Environmental disclosure system focused strictly on climate change, water security, and forests.
   • Best For: Companies receiving frequent supply-chain requests from major corporate customers.
   • Why choose it: Many organizations use CDP as an intake questionnaire rather than a standalone glossy PDF report. Explore the platform at CDP Portal.

A Simple Strategy for Your First Year

For a first-time reporter, don't try to boil the ocean. Many companies start by doing a materiality assessment (consulting internal and external stakeholders to see what matters most to your business) and aligning the qualitative narrative with GRI , while pulling in selective key performance indicators (KPIs) relevant to your industry.

To help narrow down the best path, could you tell me:

• Is your company private or publicly traded?
• Do you have operations or customers in the EU?
• What is your primary industry (e.g., manufacturing, tech, retail, finance)?