SASB materiality map: industry topics, not a company’s conclusion

It also “allows companies to review and compare disclosure topics from various industries side by side”, which the Foundation says could be particularly useful for companies in several industries.

The Materiality Map is a separate item in the SASB Standards Navigator menu.

As at 11 October 2026 the map’s address served the Navigator’s welcome and sign-in page rather than the map, so this guide does not describe what the map displays.

The Navigator says users can register a free account to access the current standards, and that premium-access tools are also available there.

The old sasb.org/standards address is a redirect; the standards themselves are described on SASB Standards.

Each topic carries metrics, which the Foundation says are designed to “provide useful information regarding a company’s performance in relation to a specific disclosure topic”.

Each metric has technical protocols that “help ensure that metrics are compiled consistently and enable comparisons across companies”.

Activity metrics “quantify the scale of specific activities or operations by a company” and are used to normalise the data.

For companies applying ISSB Standards, the Foundation points to paragraphs IG11–24 and IE1–15 of the Accompanying Guidance to IFRS S1.

“Ultimately, each company is responsible for determining which disclosure topics represent sustainability-related risks and opportunities for its business and which associated metrics to disclose, taking the company’s business model, business strategy and relevant legal requirements into account.”

The guide gives examples: a chemicals topic on genetically modified organisms may be irrelevant to a company with no agricultural exposure, and Scope 1 metrics may be less relevant to a power company that sources but does not generate energy.

It also says a company may find further topics relevant that its industry standard does not include, especially with a complex or unique business model.

And it says reporting with the SASB Standards “is not an ‘all or nothing’ proposition”.

The first priority is “based on the informational needs of investors as well as the cost-effectiveness of obtaining and reporting the associated data”.

The second is “based on relative size of business segments and/or relative risk”, because “relatively small business segments can have outsize contributions to risk”.

The Materiality Finder’s side-by-side comparison is the tool the Foundation names for this case.

As recorded in this site’s fact base on 24 August 2026, the general version stamp is 2023-12, effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2025.

On 18 December 2025 the ISSB issued version 2025-12 amendments to three financial-sector standards — asset management and custody, commercial banks and insurance — effective for annual periods beginning on or after 1 January 2027.

A July 2025 exposure draft closed on 30 November 2025, and a further draft for three industries closed on 24 July 2026.

The ISSB’s wider framework is on the ISSB framework.

SASB topics can inform the financial side of an ESRS assessment, because they describe risks and opportunities by industry.

They do not cover the impact side, which asks about effects on people and the environment, so a double materiality assessment needs impact evidence of its own.

Recital 20 of Directive (EU) 2026/470 leaves only the possibility that the Commission “could” support undertakings with non-binding sector guidance.

The impact test is set out on impact materiality, and GRI’s on GRI materiality.