UK: The Energy & Environment Alliance (EEA) has joined the IFRS Sustainability Alliance to work on the hospitality industry’s financial and sustainability disclosure and reporting frameworks.
The EEA, a not-for-profit coalition of hospitality investors, developers, asset managers and operators, will work with the International Financial Reporting Standards on a global baseline of sustainability disclosures.
Sustainability-related disclosure standards have been developed by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), which operates under the IFRS Foundation and will look to meet the needs of capital markets, across all industries around the world, including hospitality.
The partnership is important because financial and sustainability disclosure will affect access to capital in the hotel sector as a company’s ESG credentials will come under the microscope.
The EEA says current sustainability ratings won’t be enough to “unlock capital” in the future.
Ufi Ibrahim, EEA CEO, said: “We need to ensure that global reporting standards are consistent, comparable, and decision-useful for hospitality investors and asset managers. Going forward, many of the current sustainability ratings and green certification programmes won’t be enough to unlock capital.”
Ibrahim added: “Audit grade ESG reporting will become the norm. Joining the IFRS Sustainability Alliance positions the EEA to shape the development of sector specific standards, and to inform hospitality industry leaders with timely and meaningful knowledge.”
Rebecca Bar, director of membership at IFRS Foundation said: “The IFRS Foundation appreciates EEA’s engagement with and support for our mission through it joining the IFRS Sustainability Alliance.
“Alliance members believe in the power of building a global baseline of sustainability disclosures for the capital markets, developed by the Foundation’s International Sustainability Standards Board, to enable investors to factor in sustainability-related risks and opportunities in their decisions. We’re looking forward to our work together.”
The international body that brings together the world’s securities regulators – the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) – has endorsed the new IFRS sustainability and climate related disclosure standards, saying they are “appropriate to serve as a global framework for capital markets to develop the use of sustainability-related financial information”.
Governments considering the adoption of the standards include: Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and the United Kingdom.
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