SASB Launches New Public Comment Portal

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 29, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™, a 501c3 non-profit organization that develops sustainability accounting standards for publicly-listed U.S. corporations, today announced a new public comment portal to collect feedback on SASB's draft and provisional standards.

Stakeholder feedback is an important part of SASB's balanced, transparent, and open process. SASB opens standards for public comment at two points in the development process: draft and provisional. Draft standards are open for a 90 day public comment period in the third phase of SASB's standards development process. Provisional standards are open for a public comment period of at least one year after initial release. The provisional phase is designed for companies to road test the standards and provide feedback on their use.

"Feedback from companies and investors helps us meet our first priority: ensuring SASB standards are cost-effective for issuers and decision-useful for investors," says SASB CEO and Founder Dr. Jean Rogers. "We structured our standards development process with this goal in mind."

Feedback received during the provisional phase will be considered during development of the final standards. SASB is in the process of determining the structure and process for the finalization of SASB standards. The proposed process for finalization will be released for public comment in Q1 2015. The finalization process will begin sequentially, and will follow a sector by sector approach. Robert Herz, former FASB chair and a recent addition to the Board of Directors, and Dr. Jeffrey Hales, Chair of the SASB Standards Council, will play instrumental roles in the process.

"We're extending the rigorous processes already established for standards development to standards finalization," says Jerome Lavigne-Delville, Director of Standards Development. "During this process, we're assessing various approaches based on timeliness, quality of outcomes, credibility, and transparency."

Click here to visit the SASB Public Comment Portal.

About SASB
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board™ (SASB)™ is an independent 501(c)3 organization that develops industry-specific standards for use in disclosing material sustainability information in filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg LP, and Mary Schapiro, former SEC chairman, serve as chair and vice chair of SASB's Board of Directors, and Dr. Jean Rogers serves as Founder and CEO. More than 1,890 individuals representing $21T assets under management and $9.5T market capital have participated in multi-stakeholder industry working groups informing standards development to date. SASB is an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) accredited standards developer. For more information about SASB, visit www.sasb.org, or follow us on YouTube, Twitter or LinkedIn.

Media Contact
Amanda Medress
Associate Director, Communications
[email protected]
(415) 830-9220 ext. 106

SOURCE Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

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http://www.sasb.org