SASB Celebrates One Year Anniversary of Standards Setting

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™, a 501c3 non-profit organization that provides sustainability accounting standards for use by publicly listed corporations in the U.S., last week celebrated its first year anniversary of standards setting at a reception hosted at Bloomberg Philanthropies in New York City. The event featured remarks by Michael R. Bloomberg, Vice President Al Gore, and Dr. Jean Rogers, Founder and Executive Director of SASB.

"SASB's rapid progress would not be possible without the generous support of many people," said Dr. Rogers at the event.  "Abetted by our funders, we're quickly advancing towards our vision: to enable sustainability fundamentals to be accessed — by all investors — alongside financial fundamentals. With this information, investors can discern which companies are better positioned to create value in a resource constrained world."

The event celebrated funders pivotal to SASB's development, including lead funders (Bloomberg Philanthropies, The F.B. Heron Foundation and the Generation Foundation), west coast anchor funders (TomKat Charitable Trust and the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation) and other key supporters (Eileen Fisher, the Jeremy Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment, the Jesse and Betsy Fink Foundation and SASB's Board of Directors). Philanthropic support enables SASB to focus on setting standards for 80+ industries in 10 sectors through 2015, after which SASB will transition to an earned income funding model. 

"I've always said: In God we trust - everyone else, bring data," said Mr. Bloomberg at the event. "SASB has had a highly impressive first year. They're working directly with the economic system and regulatory framework to systematically develop standards for industries in all ten sectors of the U.S. economy."

Since SASB's public launch in October 2012, the organization has started and/or completed developing sustainability accounting standards for 38 industries in five sectors. Eight hundred fifty people— investors representing $12 trillion assets under management and corporations representing market cap of $5 trillion—have provided feedback on SASB standards to date. SASB's first set of standards, for industries in the health care sector, have been downloaded more than 900 times since their issuance on July 31, 2013.

"Shareholders will be best served by companies who maximize their financial return while managing their performance in the context of material environmental, social and governance issues," said Vice President Gore at the event. "With SASB's standards, for the first time investors will be able to compare company performance within and across industries on the most critical dimensions of sustainability that impact long term value creation."

For more information about SASB, please visit www.sasb.org.

About SASB 

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™ is an independent 501(c)3 organization that establishes and maintains industry-specific standards for use in disclosing material sustainability issues annual filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. 850 survey responses, from individuals representing $12T assets under management and $5T market capital, have been collected for standards development for four sectors to date.  For more information about SASB, visit www.sasb.org, or follow us on YouTube, Twitter or LinkedIn.

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SOURCE Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)