IFRS S1: General Sustainability-related Disclosures
Foundational. IFRS S1is the ISSB's general requirements standard — published 26 June 2023, effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024 subject to jurisdictional adoption. It sets the four-pillararchitecture (governance, strategy, risk management, metrics & targets) that IFRS S2 builds on, and is adopted into UK SRS S1 by DBT.
What IFRS S1 is, in one paragraph
IFRS S1 is the ISSB's foundational general-requirements standard — the architecture every other ISSB standard builds on.
The general sustainability disclosure standard
IFRS S1 — General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information — is the foundational standard issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) on 26 June 2023, alongside IFRS S2.
It is effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024, with application depending on jurisdictional endorsement.
IFRS S1 requires an entity to disclose information about all sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could reasonably be expected to affect its cash flows, access to finance or cost of capital over the short, medium or long term — structured across governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.
In the United Kingdom, IFRS S1 is adopted into UK SRS S1 by the Department for Business and Trade (25 February 2026), with the FCA proposing comply-or-explain application for in-scope listed companies from 1 January 2029 under CP26/5.
This page is the dedicated reference for IFRS S1 itself — the ISSB-issued standard, its core content architecture, its enterprise-value materiality basis, and how it reaches UK preparers through endorsement. The authoritative text and supporting materials are on the IFRS S1 page of the IFRS Sustainability Standards Navigator, published by the International Sustainability Standards Board.
For the climate topic standard built on this architecture, see IFRS S2. For the UK adoption with its UK-specific amendments, see UK SRS S1. For where the ISSB standards sit among GRI, ESRS and SASB, see global sustainability standards.
The core content: four areas of disclosure
Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics & Targets — inherited from the TCFD and applied to every material sustainability topic.
IFRS S1 disclosure architecture
IFRS S1 structures disclosure around four core content areas drawn from the TCFD framework: Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics & Targets.
For every material sustainability-related risk or opportunity, the entity answers the same four questions: who oversees it, how it affects the business model and financial position, how it is managed as a risk, and how performance is measured.
This is the same architectural spine that IFRS S2 applies to climate — which is why S2 cannot be applied without S1.
IFRS S1 also carries the connectivity requirement: sustainability disclosures must cover the same reporting entity and the same reporting period as the financial statements, use consistent assumptions, and be published at the same time. Any differences must be explained. This connectivity concept flows directly into the UK Strategic Report framework under UK SRS S1.
Enterprise-value materiality — the S1 lens
IFRS S1 uses single (financial / enterprise-value) materiality. It asks one question: could omitting this information change a primary user's decision about the entity?
Single (financial / enterprise-value) materiality
IFRS S1 applies single, financial (enterprise-value) materiality.
Information is material if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence the decisions that primary users — investors, lenders and other creditors — make on the basis of an entity's general-purpose financial reports.
This is not the EU CSRD/ESRS double materiality concept, which adds a second, impact-based test.
SASB Standards are referenced for industry-specific metrics, but they are not the materiality basis.
Information is material if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence the decisions that primary users of general-purpose financial reports make on the basis of those reports.
IFRS S1 materiality definition
- Enterprise-value materialityIFRS S1
- The single, financial lens used by IFRS S1: information is material if it could reasonably be expected to influence the decisions that primary users — investors, lenders and other creditors — make about the entity. Sometimes called single or financial materiality.
- Double materialityEU CSRD / ESRS
- The two-part EU test: financial materiality plus impact materiality — does the entity have a material impact on the environment or society regardless of financial relevance? Not used by IFRS S1 or UK SRS.
- Primary usersIFRS S1
- Existing and potential investors, lenders and other creditors of an entity's general-purpose financial reports — the users whose decision-needs drive the IFRS S1 materiality test.
Companies caught by both regimes can reuse much of the same data: EFRAG aligned the ESRS financial-materiality definition with the ISSB's and published interoperability guidance. But the inside-out impact assessment that CSRD requires is not part of IFRS S1, so an IFRS S1 report does not automatically satisfy the ESRS. UK preparers running both lenses inherit the same position through the UK adoption.
How IFRS S1 relates to IFRS S2
S1 is the architecture; S2 is the first topic standard built on it. S2 cannot be applied without S1.
Both standards were issued together on 26 June 2023 and are designed as a pair. Even entities that only face a climate deadline implement the S1 architecture in substance from day one, because S2 reuses S1's materiality lens, connectivity requirement and value-chain scope 1.
IFRS S1 and S2 UK adoption — how the standards reach UK preparers
The UK endorsed both ISSB standards as UK SRS S1 and S2 with UK-specific amendments. Future ISSB standards will not apply in the UK without the same endorsement.
UK adoption with amendments
The UK adopted IFRS S1 into UK SRS S1, published by the Department for Business and Trade on 25 February 2026 alongside UK SRS S2, for voluntary use by any UK entity.
The UK version carries six UK-specific amendments — UK effective dates, reworked transitional reliefs matched to the UK's climate-first 2027/2029 phasing, SASB references softened from "shall" to "may", the GICS classification requirement removed, and connectivity clarified for the UK Strategic Report framework.
Under FCA CP26/5, in-scope listed companies would apply UK SRS S1 on a comply-or-explain basis from 1 January 2029, two years after UK SRS S2 climate disclosures.
The UK endorsement is standard-by-standard. New or amended ISSB standards — the nature-related standard the ISSB is developing, for example — do not automatically enter UK SRS; each requires its own UK technical assessment and endorsement decision, as the FRC's Sustainability Reporting Developments FAQ confirms 4. The canonical UK reference is the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards guidance on GOV.UK.
The six UK departures from the IFRS S1 baseline are annotated in full on the UK SRS amendments page, and the wider UK framework is summarised at UK SRS.
IFRS S1 around the world
Over 30 jurisdictions representing half of global GDP have adopted or are adopting the ISSB Standards — some in full, some climate-first.
Global ISSB adoption status
More than 30 jurisdictions, representing over half of global GDP, have adopted or are adopting the ISSB Standards.
Some adopt the full S1 + S2 set — the UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore among them.
Others begin climate-only with an S2 equivalent, adding general requirements later.
The European Union runs a parallel, broader system: the ESRS under CSRD use double materiality, though EFRAG's interoperability guidance aligns the financial-materiality half with the ISSB definition.
IFRS S1's value is comparability: a multinational can build one sustainability reporting architecture and reuse it across every ISSB-aligned jurisdiction, adjusting only for local amendments like the UK's. The full landscape — GRI, ESRS, SASB and the ISSB baseline — is mapped on global sustainability standards and sustainability reporting standards.
IFRS S1 — Frequently Asked Questions
The most common questions on IFRS S1, with every answer linking to primary sources.
What is IFRS S1?
IFRS S1 (General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information) is the ISSB's foundational sustainability disclosure standard, issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board on 26 June 2023 and effective for annual reporting periods beginning on or after 1 January 2024, subject to jurisdictional adoption 1.
It sets the architecture — governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets — for disclosing all material sustainability-related risks and opportunities, and it provides the concepts that IFRS S2 relies on for climate.
What is the difference between IFRS S1 and IFRS S2?
IFRS S1 is the general standard: it sets the disclosure architecture and requirements for every material sustainability-related risk and opportunity. IFRS S2 is the topic standard for climate only, built on the S1 architecture.
S2 cannot be applied without S1 — an entity applying IFRS S2 must also apply the general requirements in IFRS S1, which supply the materiality basis, connectivity to the financial statements and value-chain concepts. The full side-by-side is in the comparison section above.
Is IFRS S1 mandatory in the UK?
Not directly. The UK adopted IFRS S1 into UK SRS S1 with UK-specific amendments, published by DBT on 25 February 2026 for voluntary use 3.
Under FCA CP26/5 5, in-scope listed companies would move to comply-or-explain application of UK SRS S1 from 1 January 2029 — two years after the proposed mandatory climate start under UK SRS S2 in 2027, and subject to the FCA Policy Statement expected autumn 2026.
What materiality does IFRS S1 use?
IFRS S1 uses single (financial / enterprise-value) materiality. Information is material if omitting, misstating or obscuring it could reasonably be expected to influence the decisions that primary users of general-purpose financial reports — investors, lenders and other creditors — make on the basis of those reports 1.
This is not the EU CSRD/ESRS double materiality concept, which adds a second, impact-based test. The UK kept the enterprise-value lens when it adopted the standard into UK SRS.
Which jurisdictions have adopted IFRS S1?
More than 30 jurisdictions, representing over half of global GDP, have adopted or are adopting the ISSB Standards 2. Some adopt the full S1 + S2 set — the United Kingdom (UK SRS S1 and S2), Australia, Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore among them — while others start climate-only with S2 equivalents.
Adoption always depends on jurisdictional endorsement: the standards are not automatically mandatory anywhere. The wider landscape is mapped on the global sustainability standards page.
Is IFRS S1 the same as ISSB S1?
Yes. "IFRS S1" and "ISSB S1" refer to the same standard. The ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board) issued the standard; the IFRS Foundation publishes it as part of the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards 2.
It is also sometimes called the "General Sustainability-related Disclosures" or "General Requirements" standard. How it sits alongside the other frameworks is covered in sustainability reporting standards.
Do new ISSB standards automatically apply in the UK?
No. New or amended ISSB standards — such as future nature or human capital standards — do not automatically become part of UK SRS. Each must go through the UK's endorsement process, with technical assessment before a UK version is adopted, per the FRC's Sustainability Reporting Developments FAQ 4.
UK SRS S1 is therefore a fixed UK endorsement of IFRS S1 as amended for the UK, not a moving reference to whatever the ISSB publishes next. The UK-specific departures are listed on the UK SRS amendments page.
Related guides & references
IFRS S2 — Climate-related Disclosures
The ISSB's climate topic standard, built on the IFRS S1 architecture. Scope 1/2/3 GHG emissions, scenario analysis, and the UK SRS S2 mapping.
UK SRS S1 — General Sustainability Disclosures
How the UK has adopted IFRS S1 into UK SRS S1 with six UK-specific amendments. Proposed comply-or-explain for listed companies from 1 January 2029.
Global Sustainability Standards
How IFRS S1 and S2, the EU's ESRS, and the SASB standards relate to each other — and where UK SRS fits in the international landscape.