US fund giant Franklin Templeton has joined the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board’s (SASB) Investor Advisory Group, a group made up of asset owners and managers which aims to improve sustainability-related disclosures to investors.
Julie Moret, head of environmental, social and governance at Franklin Templeton, said that the California-based firm is a “strong supporter” of the SASB’s work in establishing a “market-based set of sustainability accounting standards that have been created collaboratively with industry and investors, representing industry specificity and comparability across industries”.
The sustainable accounting standards board was set up in 2016 to provide investor feedback and guidance for the organization related to sustainability.
In November last year it published what it claimed was the world’s “first complete set” of 77 industry-specific sustainability accounting standards with the intention of enabling businesses to “identify and communicate performance, on an industry-specific basis, on the sustainability issues that matter most to financial performance”.
Other asset managers with members on the board include Blackrock, Moody’s, and State Street.
Made up of 44 firms, the SASB currently accounts for $33 trillion (€29.6 trillion) in assets under management.
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