SASB’s Official Website Information

 

SASB Standards enable businesses around the world to identify, manage their financially-material sustainability information, and communicate with their investors.

 

SASB has developed complete and customized standards of 77 industries . In November 2018, SASB debuted these Standards, providing a complete set of globally applicable industry-specific criteria which identify financially material sustainable topics and their associated metrics for the typical company in each industry.

 

These Standards are explained graphically through their Materiality Map, and may be viewed through their complete Standards Navigator database. SASB staff and Standards Board followed a Conceptual Framework and Rules of Procedure to develop these Standards, which are designed to be cost-effective for companies to implement and decision-useful to both companies and investors.

 

SASB provides an Engagement Guide for investors to consider questions to discuss with companies regarding financially material issues as well as an Implementation Guide (update in early 2019) for companies which explains issues and approaches to consider when implementing SASB Standards.

 

 

 

SASB becomes the preferred ESG indicator for investors

 

Investors in the United States are eager for ESG reporting provided by companies with more consistency to compare in investment strategy.

 

In 2018, SASB developed criteria for 77 industries to meet investors’ needs by linking ESG evaluation to financial performance. SASB illustrated its criteria with graphical materiality maps and further developed its approach to provide  investors with a way to do company engagement on materiality issues.

 

The industry-specific evaluation criteria reflects the sustainability risks and opportunities associated with companies in that industry and, where material, are linked to the company's financial position, operational performance and risk profile.

 

SASB was designed to help companies integrate its ESG information into the investment decision-making process in an efficient manner, said SASB CEO Janine Guillot. She added that SASB was designed to imitate the concept of accounting standards, with the goal of having more than 75 percent of S&P Global 1200 companies using SASB criteria within five years.

 

 

GRI and SASB Collaborate to upgrade the quality of ESG information

 

GRI and SASB Collaborate to Promote Sustainability Disclosure

 

With the international marketplace getting more keen on ESG sustainability disclosure than before, organizations around the world developed much more frameworks and guidelines to meet the expectations of various stakeholders. This trend has left companies not only busily understanding the complexities of the disclosure process, but also considering which regulatory frameworks to adopt in order to meet their own characteristics. However, the competition between these frameworks could sometimes have a positive effect on information disclosure.

 

On July 12, 2020, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) jointly released a new collaborative statement. Based on their partnership, they will work to clarify the differences between the two disclosure frameworks and to help various stakeholders understand how to use the standards and information comprehensively.

 

GRI and SASB complement each other to facilitate ESG disclosure

 

GRI, which was the first published frame work to disclose sustainability performance in 1997, featured "meeting the needs of multiple stakeholders" that stakeholders are interested in. Therefore, GRI standards cover a wide range of issues. SASB, which was established in 2011, aimed to disclose sustainability issues relevant to investors and to identify significant sustainability elements that may impact financial performance. In addition, SASB standards have been developed for 77 specific industries in order to combine "financial materiality focus" with "peer group comparability".

 
 
 

In an era of climate emergency, you should know more about the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) than GDP

 

After Chinese New Year in 2020, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), representing 525 institutional investors with $96 trillion in assets (about 4.5 U.S. GDP), released the latest performance of its 2019 carbon disclosure information and management action survey, which also shaped the blueprint of global responsible investment.

 

In order to deal with climate crises and risks, the first priority for companies is to completely disclose climate-related risk information. CDP, a non-profit organization established in 2000 composed of corporations and other non-profit organizations, aims to promote a sustainable economy and encourages companies and cities to start with adequate information disclosure and climate risk assessment to achieve the goal of dealing with climate crises.

 

CDP, Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), FTSE4Good Index, and other international rating agencies all expect that companies can completely disclose climate-related information, identify climate risks and opportunities, and work together to devote in the sustainability of the earth through the power of institutional investors, as well as to provide a sustainable environment for companies.

 
 
 

Tien-Mu Huang, Chairperson of the FSC : “ESG investment will become a trend”

 

"Investors not only care about earnings per share in financial reports, but also quality of the information.” Many foreign investors will first review the ESG-related information disclosed in the financial reports by machine, and if there is no disclosure, they will not consider investing at all. After that, the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) is going to promote Green Finance 2.0 and Corporate Governance 3.0 to strengthen the guidance, and it is believed that "ESG investment will become a trend."

 

The FSC's Green Finance 2.0 and Corporate Governance 3.0, to be announced at the end of August, will strengthen ESG disclosure by adopting the standards published by Sustainability Accounting Standards Board's (SASB) , i.e., disclosing consistent indicators of the financial impact of ESG, and the data will be comparable.

 
 
 

ESG: The Best Antivirus Software in Cathay Financial Holdings

 

 

Chairman of Cathay Financial Holdings, Chang-Ken Lee, emphasized that Cathay Financial Holdings has implemented ESG and responsible investment, and "critically inspects" ESG performance of companies based on relevant indicators when lending them money. The performance since 2014 has shown that ESG is a benefit, not a burden, and can reduce "stepping on mines", making it an excellent "anti-virus software".

 

Since 2014, Cathay Financial Holdings has been promoting responsible investment, in every aspect of the investment process to implement ESG practices, and their employees will actively care about ESG performance of invested companies. Long-term evidence shows that companies that focus on ESG have improved core functions, created higher value, and have better long-term investment performance. Therefore, not only from buy-side but also from sell-side, such as Cathay Securities and Cathay Futures have launched ESG research reports on individual stocks to help clients analyze corporate ESG performance and implement responsible investment in all aspects.

 

Chang-Ken Lee also said that good, better, best, never let it rest on responsible investment. The financial industry is the guardian of public funds, so after investment, to influence enterprises to pursue sustainable operations rather than short-term interests not only helps reduce corporate ESG risk but also creates a positive cycle for society through the power of shareholders to monitor enterprises.

 
 
 

ESG is the most important thing while investing｜Without it, Taiwanese companies couldn’t receive orders from Apple and Nike

 

"Corporate performance used to be based on EPS, but it's time to focus on ESG now." said Chan Chang, pre-director of Center for Corporate Sustainability at National Taipei University. In the past, investors thought ESG was just doing charity, but in fact, this kind of investment logic is out of date.

 

As long as Taiwanese companies do well on ESG, they will become a bridge to attract foreign investment. According to Bo-li Huang, manager of the Corporate Governance Center of Taiwan Stock Exchange, Taiwanese listed companies rank first among emerging markets in both MSCI and DJSI ESG indices. If foreign investors buy stocks based on the ESG index, it could be normal to buy Taiwanese companies within its portfolio.

 
 
 

Cathay Financial Holdings collaborate with National Taipei University to establish ESG database and select the companies with excellent ESG performance

 

To help investors select the companies with excellent ESG performance,Cathay Securities and Cathay Futures, subsidiaries of Cathay Financial Holdings, made cooperation with National Taipei University to place ESG reports of domestic listed and OTC companies in a local database. Cathay Financial Holdings Chairman, Chang-Geng Lee, said that the ESG reports of 300 domestic listed companies will be systematically organized so that investors can easily access them in the future.

 
 
 

Cathay Futures Co. Ltd. launches innovative ESG report

 

Cathay Futures Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Cathay Securities Corporation, and National Taipei University held an industry-academia cooperation conference on July 15 to launch a local ESG research report that is in line with international standards, to serve as a communication bridge between domestic investment institutions, listed and OTC companies. To jointly bet on ESG research for domestic listed and OTC companies, satisfy the ESG research gap of the investment market in Taiwan, and enable Taiwanese companies with outstanding ESG performance to be seen by the international market. 

 

Chairman of Cathay Securities Corporation, Shun-Yu Chuang , said that the corporation of ESG reports with National Taipei University is not only about environmental, social and corporate governance, but also about "Encourage", "Share" and "Get together". As ESG research is still in its infancy in Taiwan, Cathay Securities Corporation expects more listed and OTC companies to join the ESG trend and hopes to attract more research institutions and brokerage firms to join in.

 
 
 

DJSI Index Family

Investment Targets

The Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) are a family of best-in-class benchmarks for investors who have recognized that sustainable business practices are critical to generating long-term shareholder value and who wish to reflect their sustainability convictions in their investment portfolios. The family was launched in 1999 as the first global sustainability benchmark and tracks the stock performance of the world's leading companies in terms of economic, environmental and social criteria.

 

Created jointly by S&P Dow Jones Indices and SAM, the DJSI combines the experience of an established index provider with the expertise of a specialist in Sustainable Investing to select the most sustainable companies from across 61 industries.

 

The indices serve as benchmarks for investors who integrate sustainability considerations into their portfolios, and provide an effective engagement platform for investors who wish to encourage companies to improve their corporate sustainability practices.

 

Methodology

The DJSI World applies a transparent, rules-based component selection process based on the companies’ Total Sustainability Scores resulting from the annual S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA). Only the top ranked companies within each industry are selected for inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index family. No industries are excluded from this process.

 

DJSI Index family

The Dow Jones Sustainability Index family comprises global, regional, and country benchmarks as shown in the following list:

  • DJSI World
  • DJSI North America
  • DJSI Europe
  • DJSI Asia Pacific
  • DJSI Emerging Markets
  • DJSI Korea
  • DJSI Australia
  • DJSI Chile
  • DJSI MILA Pacific Alliance

For Investors who wish to limit their exposure to controversial activities, S&P Dow Jones Indices also offer the DJSI Indices with exclusion criteria such as Armaments & Firearms, Alcohol, Tobacco, Gambling and Adult Entertainment.

 

All DJSI indices are calculated in both price and total return versions and are disseminated in real time.