How to keep pace with the fast-changing landscape for ESG regulation, standards

If you listened to our bonus episode of the ESG Insider podcast last week, you know we were on the ground attending GreenBiz, one of the largest sustainability conferences in the U.S. that brought together about 1,300 sustainability professionals.

A big theme we heard at the event is that sustainability is accelerating rapidly — and that change is especially pronounced in the evolving landscape for standard-setting bodies and disclosure regulations.

At the conference, we sat down with one of those standard setters to discuss the big developments afoot: Katie Schmitz Eulitt, Director of Investor Relationships at the Value Reporting Foundation, formerly the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, or SASB.

"There's excitement about the harmonization that is happening in this space and maybe a little frustration about, 'well, why can't we just get it done now — why do we have to wait?'" Katie says. "But I think we've come so far so fast that some of us are kind of pinching ourselves."

We also talk with Kristen Sullivan, who is Sustainability and ESG Services Leader at Deloitte. Kristen moderated a panel at the conference titled "The SEC Homes in on ESG," and in the episode she tells us what to expect in the near term from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission when it comes to climate and human capital management disclosure rules. "It's a matter of when, not if, the regulators are really putting that definition around disclosure expectations," Kristen tells us.

And to hear what all these changes look like in practice for companies, we sat down with Jaclyn Allen, Director of Sustainability at fashion company Guess. "The investor community is really concerned about climate, and they want to know that the company that they're investing in has a long-term view for the business as a whole," she says.

S&P Global Sustainable1 was a sponsor of the GreenBiz conference. Listen to the bonus episode, featuring an interview with GreenBiz Group Chariman and Co-Founder Joel Makower: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bonus-episode-a-sneak-peek-at-greenbiz-one-of/id1475521006?i=1000551417128

We'd love to hear from you. To give us feedback on this episode or share ideas for future episodes, please contact hosts Lindsey Hall (lindsey.white@spglobal.com) and Esther Whieldon (esther.whieldon@spglobal.com).

Photo credit: Getty Images