Dr. Kwabena Situ, Assurance Partner at Deloitte, has stated that companies do not have an excuse to forego the adoption of the International Sustainability Standards.
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is a standard-setting body established in 2021–2022 under the IFRS Foundation, whose mandate is to create and develop sustainability-related financial reporting standards to meet investors’ needs for sustainability reporting.[
According to Dr. Situ, the ISSB’s International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) S1 and S2 are the world’s first truly global, proportionate, and phased approach to sustainability reporting, adding that they are designed to provide a global baseline that all businesses can rely on.
Speaking at a webinar organised by the Chartered Institute of Accountants Ghana (ICAG), he pointed out that no matter the size of a company, the stage of operations, or the resources available, there is no excuse for a firm not to adopt the ISSB standards.
The topic for the occasion was “Taking Advantage of the Proportionality Mechanism within Sustainability Reporting under IFRS S1 and IFRS S2”.
Dr. Situ said the proportionality mechanism directly tackles three of the biggest challenges companies face. These are resource constraints, a lack of readily available data, and shortages of specialist skills.
Importantly, he added that the proportionality mechanism does not introduce new disclosure requirements or exemptions; instead, it makes the existing requirements easier, more practical, and more achievable to implement in real business conditions.
Continuing, he alluded that “Companies are not expected to have perfect data or unlimited expertise from the beginning. Rather, they are encouraged to use reasonable and supportable information that is available at the reporting date, without undue cost or effort, and then gradually build up and improve their disclosures over time. This makes the ISSB standards scalable, inclusive, and realistic, ensuring that they can be implemented not just by the largest multinational corporations but also by small and medium-sized enterprises across different regions and sectors”.
The standards are supported by several adoption measures as they are aligned with familiar accounting concepts such as materiality and are interoperable with other reporting frameworks such as GRI.
Dr. Situ stressed that all of these are designed to make the journey of adoption smoother and more accessible for businesses everywhere.