Comparative assessment of global reporting initiative and sustainability accounting standards board environmental disclosure standards

Abstract

Against the backdrop of the accelerated advancement of global sustainable development, environmental information disclosure has evolved into a crucial means for enterprises to respond to external pressures and enhance their internal governance mechanisms. In recent years, a variety of disclosure frameworks have emerged one after another, among which the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) have become the two major standards that are relatively widely adopted in the international context. These frameworks guide companies towards more transparent and accountable reporting practices. This study takes the GRI and SASB as its research objects. It sorts out their respective theoretical foundations, compares the differences between the two standards in terms of their disclosure philosophies and scopes of application, and illustrates these comparisons with case studies of Solidcore Resources, a mining enterprise, and Kaspi.kz, a fintech enterprise, both operating in Kazakhstan. The study finds that the GRI, which is rooted in stakeholder theory, places greater emphasis on the comprehensiveness of disclosed information and its broad-ranging impacts across various stakeholder groups. The SASB, which is based on an investor-oriented approach, places greater emphasis on internal impacts that are relevant to a company’s financial performance. These two standards maintain a complementary relationship with each other. Meanwhile, the differences in enterprises’ environmental information disclosure practices are not only influenced by regulatory requirements but also closely related to factors such as industry environmental sensitivity, investor structure, and industry leading position.