The 4 pillars of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)—derived from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)—are Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics and Targets. These pillars form the core content of IFRS S1 and S2 standards, requiring companies to disclose how they monitor, manage, and measure sustainability-related risks and opportunities.
The aim of the ISSB is to create a global minimum standard for sustainability reporting that may be supplemented – but not undercut – by the adopting countries. The focus is on transparent and comparable sustainability information, primarily addressed to meet the needs of investors and the financial sector.
The four pillars of IFRS S1 and S2 are governance, strategy, risk management and metrics and targets.
The core of ESG is Environmental, Social, and Governance, but some frameworks add a fourth pillar, often Disclosure, Transparency, or even Economic Performance, to create a holistic view of a company's long-term sustainability and responsibility beyond just profits, covering planet, people, and ethical practices.
At SM Prime, sustainability is all about creating positive environmental footprint, improving the well-being of our communities, and ensuring profitable growth simultaneously. Our sustainability programs and strategies align with our four-pillar framework of Economy, People, Environment, and Community.
We define what sustainability means to Keller using the four Ps: planet, covering environmental sustainability; people, covering social sustainability; principles, covering governance; and profitable projects, covering economic sustainability and how we apply sustainability in our work.
Domains and subdomains
The Circles of Sustainability approach is explicitly critical of other domain models such as the triple bottom line that treat economics as if it is outside the social, or that treat the environment as an externality. It uses a four-domain model – economics, ecology, politics and culture.
The "Big 4" in ESG standards generally refers to the leading, complementary frameworks: GRI (Global Reporting Initiative) for broad stakeholder impact, SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) for investor-focused financial materiality, TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) for climate risks, and CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project) for environmental performance disclosure, often used together for comprehensive reporting, with newer ISSB standards gaining prominence.
The 5 Ps of ESG are People, Planet, Profit, Purpose, and Process. Together, they guide businesses to focus on sustainability, ethical practices, and meaningful growth while delivering value to all stakeholders.
The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) is an independent, private-sector body that develops and approves IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards (IFRS SDS).
The Ps refer to People, Planet, and Profit, also often referred to as the triple bottom line. Sustainability has the role of protecting and maximising the benefit of the 3Ps.
A term used to describe the main types of financial institutions: banking, trust, insurance and securities.
Introduced in 2024, ISSB's two standards—IFRS S1 and IFRS S2—have transformed a web of varied, inconsistent reporting recommendations into a single, clear roadmap for capital market-focused sustainability disclosure.
The meaning of materiality under ISSB Standards
Information is material if it could reasonably be expected to affect an entity's prospects by influencing the decisions that primary users (being investors, lenders or other creditors) make relating to providing resources to the entity.
The ISSB standards are the result of growing market demand for a disclosure framework that can facilitate decision-making for capital allocation. The standards focus on material sustainability information that affects enterprise value, keeping in mind the needs of investors and financial markets.
ISSB is focused on the organization's long term financial survival. GRI is focused on how the organization impacts the world.
The three pillars of ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) are the core criteria used to evaluate a company's sustainability and ethical impact: Environmental (planet impact), Social (people impact), and Governance (how the company is run). These pillars assess a company's performance beyond just financials, looking at its effects on the planet, its stakeholders (employees, customers, communities), and its internal structure, ethics, and accountability.
Specifically, (CS) looks to address five pillars of sustainability: human sustainability, cultural sustainability, environmental sustainability, social sustainability and economic sustainability.
Circular carbon economy and the 4Rs - reduce, reuse, recycle and remove.
Getting started with the 7Rs: Rethink, Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Regift, Recycle.
The marketing mix is a strategic framework that encompasses the key elements of marketing, commonly known as the 4 Ps: product, price, place, and promotion. A well-balanced combination of these elements is the fundamental building block of any successful business.
The 17 SDGs are structured around the five pillars of the 2030 Agenda: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnerships. These 5 Ps highlight how the SDGs are an intertwined framework instead of a group of solo goals. The progress on one P must balance and support the progress on another.