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

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)?

Absolutely. For a first sustainability report, I would avoid trying to follow every ESG framework at once. The strongest approach in 2026 is usually to pick a primary reporting standard and use a few complementary standards where they add value.

My recommended framework stack

1. GRI — my default recommendation

For a company producing its first comprehensive sustainability report, I'd start with GRI. It is designed specifically to help organizations report their impacts on the economy, environment and people, and uses Universal, Sector and Topic Standards.

The big advantage is that GRI asks essentially: "What impact does our company have, and how are we managing it?"

That makes it particularly useful for reporting on:

• Climate and energy
• Waste and circularity
• Water
• Employees and labor practices
• Human rights
• Diversity and inclusion
• Supply chain
• Community impacts
• Business ethics

GRI also has a well-established materiality process, which is extremely useful when you're figuring out what belongs in your first report.

2. ISSB — add this for an investor/financial perspective

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is increasingly important because it provides a global baseline for sustainability-related financial disclosures.

Its two foundational standards are:

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

ISSB focuses on sustainability issues that could reasonably affect the company's cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital. It organizes disclosures around governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.

So there's a useful distinction:

GRI: "What impacts does our company have on the world?"

ISSB: "What sustainability-related risks and opportunities could affect our company?"

They're complementary rather than competing approaches. In fact, the IFRS Foundation explicitly describes ISSB as working alongside GRI.

3. ESRS — don't overlook it if you have EU exposure

If your company is subject to the EU's sustainability reporting regime, European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) become a regulatory consideration rather than simply a voluntary framework.

ESRS is particularly important because of its double-materiality perspective: you consider both the company's impacts on people/environment and how sustainability matters affect the company's financial position and prospects.

If you're a U.S. company with significant European operations, I'd have your legal/accounting team determine whether and when ESRS requirements apply before designing the report.

4. GHG Protocol — use this for your emissions data

This isn't really a substitute for GRI or ISSB. Think of it as the measurement methodology underneath your climate reporting.

You'll generally want:

• Scope 1: Direct emissions
• Scope 2: Purchased energy
• Scope 3: Value-chain emissions

ISSB S2 specifically requires Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions disclosures and references the GHG Protocol methodology.

5. CDP — particularly useful for environmental disclosure

CDP is worth considering if customers, investors or other stakeholders expect your company to disclose environmental information.

Its 2026 corporate questionnaire has alignment with ISSB, ESRS, TNFD, GRI and the GHG Protocol, among others.

So you don't necessarily need to create a completely separate CDP reporting system; good underlying sustainability data can serve multiple disclosures.

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What I'd do for a first report

If I were setting up your reporting program, I'd use this architecture:

Primary framework:
GRI Standards

Financial/investor lens:
ISSB S1 + S2

Emissions methodology:
GHG Protocol

Environmental disclosure:
CDP, if relevant to your stakeholders

Nature:
TNFD, if biodiversity/nature is material

Regulatory overlay:
ESRS, if applicable

That gives you a much more coherent system than attempting to write six separate reports.

A practical first-year process

I'd structure the project roughly like this:

1. Identify your audiences
Employees? Customers? Investors? Lenders? Regulators? Communities? Procurement teams?

2. Conduct a materiality assessment
Identify the sustainability topics that are most significant to your impacts and/or financial prospects.

3. Build a disclosure matrix
Map each material topic against GRI, ISSB, applicable regulations, CDP, etc.

4. Establish your baseline data
Especially emissions, energy, water, waste, workforce, safety, diversity, supply chain and governance metrics.

5. Set targets
Avoid vague commitments like "be more sustainable." Establish measurable baselines, targets, dates and accountability.

6. Establish controls and evidence
This is often overlooked in first reports. Keep documentation showing where every reported number came from. It makes future assurance dramatically easier.

7. Publish the report + methodology/index
I'd include a clear GRI/ISSB disclosure index rather than burying the methodology in the narrative.

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One important recommendation

Don't make the report a glossy marketing document.

The most credible first report is often relatively straightforward:

Here's what matters → here's our impact → here's our data → here's what we're doing → here's where we're falling short → here's our target → here's how we'll measure progress.

That approach will also make subsequent reports much easier because you're building a repeatable reporting system, not just producing a one-off PDF.

If you tell me your industry, company size, whether you're public/private, where you operate (especially U.S./EU), and who the main audience is, I can narrow this down to the 2–3 frameworks I'd actually recommend for your company and explain exactly what your first report should contain.

Developing your company's first sustainability report can feel overwhelming, but using an established framework gives you a clear roadmap. The gold standards for sustainability reporting are globally recognized, highly structured, and help build trust with stakeholders, investors, and regulators.

• GRI Standards (Global Reporting Initiative) : The most widely used framework globally. It focuses on impact reporting—how your organization impacts the economy, environment, and people. It is great for a comprehensive, multi-stakeholder approach. You can explore the guidelines directly on the GRI Standards Website.
• ISSB Standards (International Sustainability Standards Board) : Formed by the IFRS Foundation, these standards (IFRS S1 and S2) focus heavily on sustainability-related financial disclosures and climate risks. This is the ideal route if your investors care deeply about financially material ESG risks. Learn more via the IFRS Foundation Sustainability Reporting.
• SASB Standards (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) : Now integrated into the ISSB, these sector-specific standards identify the subset of environmental, social, and governance issues most relevant to financial performance in 77 industries. Check out the industry-specific guidance on the ISSB SASB Standards Page.
• TCFD Recommendations (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) : Focused strictly on climate-related risks and opportunities (Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics/Targets). Note that TCFD has officially been absorbed into the ISSB framework, but its four-pillar structure remains the baseline for climate reporting worldwide. Details are archived via the Financial Stability Board TCFD.
• CSRD / ESRS (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive / European Sustainability Reporting Standards) : Mandatory if you do business in the European Union or meet certain EU revenue thresholds. It uses a "double materiality" approach (how sustainability affects you, and how you affect sustainability). Review the regulations through the EFRAG ESRS Overview.

To help narrow down the best choice for your company, tell me:

• What is your company's primary geography and industry?
• Is your main driver investor pressure, regulatory compliance , or brand/customer reputation?

I can help you select a primary framework and outline your first steps.

Developing your company's first sustainability report can feel overwhelming, but utilizing an established framework will give you a clear roadmap, ensure data credibility, and meet stakeholder expectations.

Here are the best and most widely recognized frameworks to consider:

• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) : The global gold standard for impact reporting. It focuses on how your organization impacts the economy, environment, and people. It is ideal if your primary goal is broad stakeholder transparency across a wide range of ESG topics. You can explore their standards directly through the GRI Standards Overview.
• International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) : Created by the IFRS Foundation (integrating standards like SASB), ISSB focuses heavily on financial materiality—how sustainability risks and opportunities impact your company’s financial performance and enterprise value. It is the go-to framework if your investors are the primary audience. Learn more at the IFRS ISSB Portal.
• Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) : Now largely integrated into the ISSB framework, TCFD is specifically structured around four pillars: Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics & Targets. It is essential if you need to report transparently on climate-related risks and opportunities.
• Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) : Now housed under the ISSB, SASB provides industry-specific standards detailing the financially material sustainability topics for 77 different sectors. It's fantastic for narrowing down what actually matters for your specific industry.
• Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) / ESRS : If your company operates in the European Union or has significant EU revenue/subsidiaries, you may be legally required to follow the European Sustainability Reporting Standards under CSRD, which uses a "double materiality" approach (impact + financial).

To help narrow down which framework fits best, could you tell me:

• What is your company's primary industry and size?
• Who is the main audience for this report (investors, customers, regulators, or employees)?
• Do you have operations or customers in the EU?

For a first sustainability report, I would avoid trying to follow every ESG framework at once. The best approach is usually to pick one primary reporting standard, then use a few specialized standards underneath it.

My recommended stack

1. GRI — my default choice for a first report

GRI Standards are probably the best starting point if your objective is a comprehensive sustainability report rather than purely an investor disclosure.

GRI is designed around an organization's impacts on the economy, environment and people, and its modular structure includes Universal, Sector and Topic Standards.

For a first report, I'd use:

• GRI 1: Foundation
• GRI 2: General Disclosures
• GRI 3: Material Topics
• Relevant GRI Topic Standards for your material issues
• Relevant GRI Sector Standards, if one exists for your industry

GRI's current standards also incorporate areas such as human rights and environmental due diligence.

Why I like it for a first report: it gives you a logical process for determining what matters instead of producing a giant list of arbitrary ESG metrics.

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2. ISSB — add this for the investor perspective

IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (ISSB) are increasingly important if your report needs to satisfy investors, lenders, boards or capital markets.

The two core standards are:

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

They focus on sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect a company's prospects, organized around governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics/targets.

ISSB is therefore somewhat different from GRI:

GRI asks: "What impacts does our company have on people and the planet?"
ISSB asks: "Which sustainability issues could affect the company's financial prospects?"

They're complementary rather than competing frameworks. ISSB explicitly describes its standards as working alongside GRI.

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3. GHG Protocol — use this for carbon

Don't invent your own methodology for emissions.

Use the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard for your corporate greenhouse-gas inventory. It provides the basis for calculating Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions, with the Scope 3 standard covering the broader value chain.

This is particularly important because your emissions figures may subsequently feed into GRI, ISSB, ESRS, CDP, customer questionnaires and target-setting exercises.

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4. ESRS — important if Europe is relevant

EFRAG's ESRS resources matter if your company falls within the scope of European sustainability-reporting requirements.

ESRS uses double materiality: both:

1. Impact materiality — how the company affects people and the environment; and
2. Financial materiality — how sustainability issues create risks and opportunities for the company.

There's also been significant ESRS development and simplification work, so I wouldn't automatically build a voluntary report around the older, full ESRS requirements unless you actually need to comply with them. EFRAG's 2026 materials reflect the evolving framework.

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So what would I actually do?

For most companies producing their first report in 2026, I'd build the architecture like this:

Primary reporting framework
→ GRI

Financial/investor lens
→ ISSB S1/S2

Climate accounting
→ GHG Protocol

Industry-specific metrics
→ SASB/ISSB industry guidance

Regulatory overlay, if applicable
→ ESRS

That gives you a report that is useful to multiple audiences without making the report an unmanageable compliance exercise.

A practical first-report structure

I'd structure the project around roughly these sections:

1. About the company
2. CEO/leadership sustainability statement
3. Governance and accountability
4. Materiality assessment
5. Sustainability strategy and goals
6. Climate & energy
7. Environment
8. People & human rights
9. Customers/products & social impact
10. Ethics, compliance & responsible business
11. Supply chain
12. Performance data and multi-year metrics
13. GRI/ISSB content index

The materiality assessment is the key starting point. Don't start by asking "Which ESG metrics can we collect?" Start by identifying your company's significant impacts, risks and opportunities, then determine what information you need to report.

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 combination and a first-year reporting roadmap rather than a generic ESG framework list.

Developing your company’s first sustainability report is an exciting milestone. The reporting landscape has shifted dramatically from voluntary PR exercises to audit-ready, standardized disclosures.

The "best" framework depends entirely on your company's footprint, geography, and who is asking for the data (investors vs. regulators vs. general stakeholders). The dominant frameworks to consider are outlined below.

The Top Sustainability Reporting Frameworks

• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)
  • Best for: Broad stakeholder accountability and comprehensive impact reporting.
  • The Lens: Impact Materiality —it asks, "How does our company impact the economy, the environment, and society?"
  • Why use it: GRI is the most widely used voluntary standard in the world. It covers a massive breadth of ESG topics via Universal, Sector, and Topic standards. If you want a deeply trusted, holistic template for your first report, GRI is the standard starting point.
• International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB / IFRS S1 & S2)
  • Best for: Investor-focused capital markets and financial materiality.
  • The Lens: Financial Materiality —it asks, "How do sustainability risks and opportunities (especially climate change under IFRS S2) affect our enterprise value and future cash flows?"
  • Why use it: The ISSB (built by the IFRS Foundation) has integrated legacy frameworks like SASB and TCFD to become the emerging global baseline for financial markets. Use this if your primary audience is investors, lenders, or shareholders.
• European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS / CSRD)
  • Best for: Mandatory compliance if you operate in or sell into the European Union.
  • The Lens: Double Materiality —combining both how the world impacts your business (financial) and how your business impacts the world (impact).
  • Why use it: If your company falls under the scope of the EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), this is legally mandatory. Even if you aren't directly in scope, many EU-based partners will cascade these requirements down the supply chain.
• CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project)
  • Best for: Structured environmental and carbon data disclosure.
  • The Lens: Climate change, water security, and forests.
  • Why use it: It operates through an annual scoring questionnaire rather than a standalone corporate report. Many B2B enterprises use CDP to satisfy enterprise customer requests or supply chain audits.

Recommended Strategy for a First-Timer

1. Conduct a Unified Materiality Assessment: Don't build separate silos. Design your baseline stakeholder survey to evaluate both financial and impact materiality simultaneously. This satisfies the rigorous double materiality approach and lets you extract what you need for GRI, ISSB, or ESRS from a single data-gathering effort.
2. Map Overlaps: Frameworks are increasingly interoperable. For example, greenhouse gas calculations via the GHG Protocol overlap heavily between GRI 305, IFRS S2, and ESRS E1. Collect your carbon and workforce data once and map it across multiple indices.
3. Prioritize Audit-Readiness: Treat your data with financial-grade rigor from day one. Third-party data verification and assurance are quickly becoming baseline expectations rather than optional bonuses.

To help narrow down the best path, could you share:

• Where is your company headquartered , and do you have international operations (like in the EU)?
• Who is your primary audience for this report (investors, customers, employees, or marketing)?

For a company’s first sustainability report, the best approach is usually not to pick one framework blindly, but to choose a combination based on your audience, geography, industry, and reporting goals. The landscape is converging, but the major frameworks still serve different purposes.

A practical starting point:

A strong first-report combination for many companies

For a first report, a common approach is:

1. Use GRI as the backbone

   • Conduct a materiality assessment.
   • Identify your most important impacts.
   • Report progress, policies, and performance indicators.

2. Layer in ISSB/SASB alignment

   • Add information investors care about:
     • climate risks
     • financial implications
     • governance oversight
     • industry-specific metrics

3. Use TCFD/ISSB climate structure

   • Organize climate disclosures around:
     • Governance
     • Strategy
     • Risk management
     • Metrics and targets
       

A sensible first-report process

1. Define your audience

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

2. Perform a materiality assessment

   • Interview internal leaders.
   • Survey stakeholders.
   • Rank sustainability topics by importance.

3. Set boundaries

   • Decide whether reporting covers:
     • your own operations only
     • subsidiaries
     • suppliers/value chain

4. Build a data inventory Typical first-year metrics:

   • Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions
   • energy use
   • water consumption
   • waste
   • workforce demographics
   • health and safety
   • ethics/compliance
   • supply-chain practices

5. Create a roadmap A first report does not need perfect data. It should clearly disclose:

   • what you measure
   • what you do not yet measure
   • improvement plans

My default recommendation

If your company has no regulatory requirement yet:

GRI + ISSB/SASB alignment + a TCFD-style climate section is usually a strong foundation. It gives you stakeholder credibility while keeping you closer to the direction of global sustainability disclosure standards.

If you share your industry, company size, country/regions of operation, and whether the audience is investors or customers, I can suggest a more tailored reporting framework stack and table of contents.