CREATING an environmentally sustainable world requires getting all companies to play by the same rules.

When one company calculates its carbon footprint differently from another, scrutineers lose the ability to confidently measure the environmental impact of businesses, and to tell good actors from bad.

The first two guidelines by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) – part of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation that helps to establish global accounting rules – could not have come sooner. Known in industry jargon as S1 – governing sustainability reporting – and S2 – relating to climate disclosures – the new accounting standards lay the groundwork for what is hoped to be an eventual global convergence on sustainability and climate reporting.