Bringing Greater Transparency to Markets: Mike Bloomberg Named Chair of SASB’s Board

Posted on Bloomberg Now. 

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), a 501c3 non-profit organization that develops sustainability accounting standards for publicly-listed U.S. corporations, today announced that Bloomberg company founder Mike Bloomberg and Mary Schapiro, former SEC chairwoman, will serve as chair and vice chair of SASB’s Board of Directors.

SASB is working with industry and financial leaders to develop industry-specific standards to help companies disclose material sustainability issues. Investor decision-making, to date, has been aided and governed by information disclosed only in financial statements. But this financial information does not tell the complete story of a company’s health and long-term profitability.

Other issues – such as talent recruitment and retention, access to natural resources and supply chain challenges – also impact a company’s long term “sustainability,” but there is no uniform way that this information is gathered or reported. SASB’s efforts to create standards for disclosing this information will create better transparency in the market by dramatically increasing the availability and utility of this information for companies, investors, regulators and the public.

Said Mike Bloomberg: “More than 30 years ago I started a company on the idea that greater market transparency leads to better investment decisions, and that idea is at the heart of SASB’s mission. The more complete and reliable the information that investors have, the better markets work — and that benefits not only individual investors but all of society.”

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