10 top ESG reporting frameworks explained and compared

What is an ESG reporting framework?

ESG frameworks include a mix of platforms, standards and recommendations that guide companies through the ESG reporting process and shape the reports they produce. Various frameworks are available, each with its own set of KPIs and reporting requirements or guidelines. But many of them are now integrated or aligned and can be used together. That's partly the result of ongoing efforts to consolidate and unify what's often described as an alphabet soup of different reporting frameworks.

The available frameworks cover a wide range of ESG factors, such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, climate change adaptation measures, labor practices, data privacy, community engagement, human rights, board diversity and executive compensation. They're developed by a combination of industry and standards groups as well as nonprofit organizations and international bodies.

Why is ESG reporting important?

ESG reporting helps companies demonstrate their commitment to sustainable growth and responsible business practices. It also shows an organization's progress toward meeting its goals on environmental sustainability, social issues and corporate governance. The reports, generally done on an annual basis, include details on different ESG metrics used to measure performance in those three areas in both quantitative and qualitative ways. They often also list the long-term objectives of ESG strategies and provide updates on key milestones.

Such disclosures can make companies more attractive to investors and customers that consider ESG factors in buying decisions. Surveys show sizable numbers of them do. For example:

• Fifty-nine percent of 1,765 individual investors in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region who were surveyed by Morgan Stanley in early 2025 said they expected to increase their sustainable investments during the next 12 months.
• In a survey of 1,004 U.S. consumers conducted by advisory services firm GlobeScan in March 2025, 49% reported that they had bought an environmentally friendly product in the past month; another 36% would have liked to if they could have.
• On the corporate side, 94% of 435 IT and data professionals surveyed by Informa TechTarget's Omdia division in 2024 said they thought their company would pay a price premium for products or services from IT vendors with strong sustainability practices.

There are internal benefits, too. ESG reporting supports regulatory compliance efforts and helps companies manage ESG and business sustainability risks in their operations. The compliance aspect is becoming even more important due to a growing number of government mandates -- such as the European Union's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) -- that require disclosures of sustainability and ESG information, at least by large companies.

But effective reporting can also lead to broader business gains for such organizations. "As the regulatory agenda intensifies, companies that can pivot quickly and approach ESG reporting strategically will be able to move from simple compliance to creating a clear competitive advantage for their organizations," Accenture consultants Stephanie Jamison, Jens Laue and Michela Coppola wrote in a 2024 report.

Different types of ESG frameworks and standards

A distinction can be made between ESG frameworks and standards. At a high level, their purpose and uses are different. According to the SASB Standards website, sustainability frameworks "provide principles-based guidance on how information is structured, how it is prepared and what broad topics are covered. Meanwhile, standards provide specific, detailed and repeatable requirements for what should be reported for each topic, including metrics."

In practice, though, the two are commonly conflated as different types of frameworks. For example, Nareit, an organization formally known as the National Association of Real Estate Investment Trusts, grouped ESG frameworks into these two primary categories in a widely cited 2019 report:

1. Voluntary disclosure frameworks. These provide a platform and mechanisms for ESG disclosures that are applicable to organizations across different industry sectors and regions. Reporting is commonly done through online surveys or questionnaires that are then scored.
2. Guidance frameworks. Akin to standards, they provide specific topics, methodologies and metrics for companies to use in reporting on their ESG performance.

Nareit also identified the ESG scoring services offered by third-party aggregators as a third framework category. More commonly known as ESG rating agencies and data providers, these vendors assess the ESG performance of companies based on publicly available data, including reports submitted through the two more widely recognized types of frameworks. They then issue ESG scores to companies in the form of either a numerical or letter rating.

Popular ESG reporting frameworks and standards

There's no single framework or standard for ESG reporting -- nor is there likely to be. The lack of standardization is one of the top ESG reporting challenges that companies face. But several standards groups have merged, and various frameworks have been consolidated, integrated or aligned, as mentioned previously. As a result, the roster of relevant ones has changed somewhat in recent years.

The following are some of the most prominent ESG frameworks, with details about them and their current status. The unranked list was compiled based on a combination of historical events, current developments and research by TechTarget editors. It's organized topically and to highlight connections between different frameworks plus recent unification moves.

1. IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards

These standards, first released in June 2023, are being developed by the International Sustainability Standards Board. The ISSB was set up in 2021 by the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation and charged with creating a set of standards that can be used globally to report sustainability-related ESG data to investors. The IFRS standards build on the existing SASB Standards and also incorporate elements of other frameworks and standards, as detailed in the following sections. Initially, there are two standards: IFRS S1 for general disclosures of sustainability-related financial information, and IFRS S2 for disclosing specific information about climate-related risks and opportunities. In 2024, the ISSB launched projects to research potential new standards for disclosures on biodiversity and human capital issues. The latter would involve a company's own employees plus workers at suppliers and other business partners.

2. SASB Standards

Originally developed by the now-defunct Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and released in 2018, the SASB Standards contain specifications on disclosing financially material sustainability information across 77 industries. The framework lists subsets of relevant ESG issues for each industry, including markets for different IT products and services. In 2021, SASB was consolidated into the Value Reporting Foundation, which was then absorbed by the IFRS Foundation in 2022. As a result, the ISSB now oversees the SASB Standards. It encourages their continued use by companies that prefer them to the IFRS ones and says it still plans to maintain and update them. The ISSB released a draft of proposed climate-related amendments to the standards in July 2025. Most of the changes would also be applied to its guidance on implementing the IFRS S2 standard in various industries.

3. GRI Standards

Developed by the Global Reporting Initiative, the GRI Standards are a modular framework that includes sets of universal, sector-specific and topic-based sustainability reporting standards. Companies can also use them to disclose the impacts their business operations have on the economy, the environment and people. The first version was published in 2000 as the GRI Guidelines; after several updates, GRI released its formal standards in 2016. It then began adding the topic standards in 2019 and the sector ones in 2021. Officially, the standards are overseen by the Global Sustainability Standards Board, an independent body set up by GRI in 2015. GRI and the ISSB are working jointly to identify and align common disclosures in their respective standards. For example, greenhouse gas emissions disclosures in IFRS S2 can now be reused with a new version of GRI's climate change reporting standard released in June 2025.

4. CDP

The Carbon Disclosure Project was founded in 2000 and is now known simply as CDP. It operates a namesake environmental disclosure system that companies can use to report on business risks and opportunities related to climate change, water security and deforestation. CDP then gives them letter-grade scores in each area, which can be viewed by various stakeholders. Previously, companies filled out separate questionnaires on the three topics. Those were combined in 2024, but CDP continues to issue separate scores. In addition, the integrated questionnaire has been aligned with IFRS S2, which is now the baseline for CDP's questions on climate issues. CDP and GRI are also collaborating to increase the interoperability of their frameworks; in October 2025, they released a mapping between CDP's questionnaire and both the GRI climate change reporting standard and an updated one on energy-related impacts and activities, which was also launched that June. Nearly 25,000 companies worldwide, including more than 5,500 in North America, used the disclosure system in 2024, according to CDP. City governments can also use it to report on their climate action efforts and other environmental data.

5. TCFD Recommendations

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, commonly known as the TCFD, developed these 11 recommendations for companies on disclosing information about financial risks and opportunities due to climate change. The TCFD was created in 2015 by the Financial Stability Board, which monitors the global financial system and recommends actions to strengthen it. In this case, the goal was to help investors, lenders and insurance underwriters assess how climate-related risks and opportunities could affect a company's financial performance. Released in 2017, the recommendations focus on four core elements: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. Over time, more than 4,000 companies declared support for the TCFD Recommendations. Several countries have mandated reporting that's aligned with them. The recommendations were incorporated into the IFRS disclosure standards in 2023, which led the TCFD to disband that October. The ISSB took over responsibility for monitoring the use of the recommendations, both separately and as part of the IFRS standards.

6. CDSB Framework

This framework was developed by the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) to support the inclusion of ESG reporting in mainstream corporate reports, such as annual reports and 10-K filings. The first version of the framework, released in 2010, focused on climate change issues; an update that incorporated broader environmental reporting became available in 2015; and another that added information on ESG's social factors followed in 2022. At its peak, the CDSB Framework was being used by 374 companies in 32 countries, according to the CDSB's website. But the CDSB was consolidated into the IFRS Foundation in 2022, and the framework was effectively replaced by IFRS S2. Technical guidance on disclosures from the CDSB was "part of the evidence base" for that standard, according to the ISSB. While the CDSB Framework is still available to use, no further development of it is planned.

7. TNFD Recommendations

Modeled on the TCFD's guidelines, this is a set of 14 recommendations for disclosing information about business risks and impacts related to nature and biodiversity issues. The TNFD Recommendations were published in September 2023 by the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, which also provided guidance on implementing them. The TNFD, which was created in 2021, includes 40 senior executives from financial institutions, companies in other industries and professional services firms. Its recommendations are structured similarly to the TCFD ones around disclosures on nature-related governance, strategy, risk and impact management, and metrics and targets. As of September 2025, 620 organizations had publicly said they would adopt the recommendations, according to the TNFD. It collaborated with GRI to support the development of the recommendations and a revised GRI biodiversity reporting standard published in 2024; they also mapped the alignment between their frameworks that year. The ISSB is also working with the TNFD to build upon the recommendations as part of the SASB Standards and the possible IFRS standard on biodiversity disclosures.

8. United Nations Global Compact

Formed in 2000, the UN Global Compact bills itself as "the world's largest corporate sustainability initiative." It focuses on aligning business strategies and operations with a set of 10 principles on human rights, labor practices, the environment and anti-corruption measures. Participating companies file an annual Communication on Progress (CoP) report that details their adherence to the principles. As of October 2025, more than 19,500 companies and 2,500 other organizations are listed as active participants on the Global Compact's website. In 2023, it launched a digital platform for CoP submissions, replacing the original narrative format with a standardized questionnaire. Businesses can also report on their contributions to and impacts on the U.N.'s broader Sustainable Development Goals in a separate platform that blends the Global Compact's principles and the GRI Standards.

9. Workforce Disclosure Initiative

Created in 2016 by ShareAction, a charity that supports responsible investment practices with an ESG focus, the Workforce Disclosure Initiative offers a platform for reporting data on workforce practices and management. The WDI framework is modeled on the CDP's disclosure system: Participating companies fill out an online survey and receive a disclosure scorecard they can use to benchmark themselves against business peers. In 2024, 144 large companies worldwide completed the annual survey, which asks about topics including workplace health and safety, policies and practices that support employee well-being, and treatment of both internal employees and supply chain workers. The reported data is also shared with about 35 institutional investors that support the initiative. In February 2024, ShareAction transferred oversight of the WDI to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

10. European Sustainability Reporting Standards

Unlike the voluntary standards listed above, the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) are mandatory ones that companies must use when filing CSRD reports. They were developed by EFRAG, an independent association formerly known as the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group that was assigned to create the standards. There are two general standards -- one details things such as concepts, principles and how reports must be structured, while the other outlines required disclosures on business operations, ESG materiality assessments, compliance practices and other general characteristics. Another 10 standards cover reporting requirements on specific ESG topics. The ESRS align or support interoperability with many of the voluntary frameworks, including the GRI and IFRS standards, the CDP questionnaire and the TCFD and TNFD recommendations.

ESG reporting regulations

Most ESG reporting is done on a voluntary basis now. However, the CSRD went into force in the EU in January 2023. While the directive's scope was reduced in 2025, it currently requires a set of large companies to report on business risks and opportunities related to social and environmental issues as well as the impact of their operations on people and the environment. Reporting requirements are due to begin for two more groups of businesses in 2028.

A related measure, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), went into force in July 2024 and is scheduled to take effect in 2028, again for a group of large companies. Its main provisions will require them to identify and address adverse human rights and environmental impacts, both internally and in their value chains. But the CSDDD also requires annual reporting on due diligence initiatives. Companies are expected to include that information in the reports they file under the CSRD if they're subject to both directives.

In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission finalized a set of climate risk disclosure rules for publicly traded companies in March 2024. But the SEC stayed their implementation after lawsuits were filed seeking to block the rules. After President Trump took office, the commission voted to stop defending the rules in court, while declining to say if it would rescind or modify them -- effectively leaving them in limbo for now.

At the state level, the California Climate Accountability Package was signed into law in 2023. It combines two bills: One requires companies that do business in the state and have more than $1 billion in annual revenue to publish carbon emissions data each year, while the other mandates that companies with revenue of $500 million or more publish a report on climate-related financial risks every two years. The reporting requirements will take effect in 2026.

Other countries also have adopted or are developing regulations on ESG reporting. The following are two notable examples:

• Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting. SECR took effect in the U.K. in 2019. It requires large companies there to disclose greenhouse gas emissions, global energy use and other data as part of their corporate annual reports. The U.K. government recommends that companies use methodologies from CDP, GRI, the CDSB Framework, the TCFD Recommendations or other external standards to prepare their SECR disclosures.
• Australian Sustainability Reporting Standards. The ASRS took effect at the start of 2025. They include a voluntary framework for disclosing sustainability-related financial information and a mandatory one for climate-related disclosures by qualifying companies. Drafted by the Australian Accounting Standards Board and named AASB S1 and AASB S2, the two standards are based on the IFRS sustainability disclosure ones. They expand on the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme, a framework established in 2007 for reporting on greenhouse gas emissions and both energy production and consumption.

How to decide which frameworks to use

It can be confusing to sort out which ESG reporting framework -- or combination of them -- will best suit your organization. The following are some factors to consider:

• The ESG data your company is looking to report on.
• The types of information different stakeholders want to see in reports.
• General ESG reporting mandates that apply to the company.
• Industry-specific reporting requirements and practices.
• The scope and maturity of the company's ESG program.

Because reporting frameworks were often created for different purposes, it's common for companies to use more than one. Donald Farmer, principal of consulting firm TreeHive Strategy, said doing so can enable more comprehensive reporting that better meets the needs of companies and their stakeholders.

Helpfully, the ongoing consolidation and collaboration moves are making it easier to combine various frameworks as needed to support ESG reporting efforts. Choosing that approach makes integration and alignment between frameworks another key consideration when evaluating them.

Editor's note: This article was updated in October 2025 for timeliness and to add new information.

Craig Stedman is an industry editor at TechTarget who creates in-depth guides on data management, analytics and other technology areas.

Lauren Gibbons Paul is a freelance writer and editor who has covered IT topics for more than 20 years, specializing in the application of technology to drive business value.