Not about trees — about better companies

Not about trees — about better companies | Daily Tribune

Every time sustainability reporting comes up, someone says:

“Ah yes… this is about planting trees and hugging them.”

For many years, sustainability was presented as a side activity — donations, tree-growing, coastal clean-ups, and good corporate citizenship projects. This made sustainability look like an add-on to business rather than part of how a company is actually run.

The new global sustainability reporting standards — what we now call the ISSB standards — are here and this quietly changes that story.

These standards are not primarily about the environment.

They are about managing our companies better.

From ‘nice to have’ to management discipline

What the ISSB is really asking companies to do is surprisingly simple and it is the same questions that investors ask of us.

It asks one question:

What real-world risks could affect your business — and are you prepared for these?

For the first time, sustainability reporting is structured the same way as financial reporting. A company now has to explain, in a clear and consistent way:

• what risks it faces

• how those risks affect its strategy

• how management is responding

• how the Board is overseeing it

• and how progress is measured

This is not a public relations exercise.

This is corporate governance.

In fact, if you remove the word “sustainability,” what remains is a framework for running a resilient company.

Climate is a business issue

Consider something very practical.

A power plant located near a coastline.

A factory dependent on stable water supply.

A logistics company operating in flood-prone cities.

A bank lending to industries exposed to transition risks.

None of these problems are environmental advocacy topics.

They are business continuity problems.

Typhoons disrupt operations.

Heat damages equipment.

Water scarcity stops production.

Policy shifts affect investments.

Technology changes strand assets.

When companies fail to anticipate these, they lose money.

When they lose money, jobs are affected.

When jobs are affected, communities suffer.

The ISSB standards simply require companies to look ahead — not just at next quarter’s earnings — but at the next 10, 20, or even 30 years.

Good companies already try to do this.

Now the world is asking them to do it systematically.

Long-term thinking is the point

Traditional business reporting has a weakness.

It is backward-looking.

Financial statements tell us what happened last year.

But investors, employees, and communities live in the future.

The ISSB standards shift the focus from performance to preparedness.

They ask:

• Will your business still work with policy landscape changes?

• Can your supply chain survive disruptions?

• Do you depend on resources that may run out?

• Are you building the right skills in your workforce?

• Is management making decisions that will still make sense 15 years from now?

In other words:

Are you building a company that can last?

This is why the standards matter. Not because they save forests — though they may help — but because they encourage companies to stop operating quarter-to-quarter and start operating generation-to-generation.

Why this matters to communities

When companies think long term, communities become more secure.

A company that manages climate risk protects jobs.

A company that invests in worker skills supports families.

A company that secures water supply protects local economies.

A company that avoids stranded investments stays stable during transitions.

Communities do not benefit from companies that grow fast but collapse early.

They benefit from companies that stay.

Stable companies build roads, power homes, finance schools, support suppliers, and create opportunity. Over decades, not just years.

This is where sustainability connects directly to development.

It is not about reporting for reporting’s sake.

It is about making sure businesses remain reliable partners in nation-building.

The Boardroom conversations

Perhaps the biggest change the ISSB brings is invisible to the public.

It changes conversations inside the boardroom.

Directors now ask:

• Are we exposed to risks we have ignored?

• Are we investing in technologies that may soon be obsolete?

• Are we training our people for the future economy?

• Are we making profits today at the cost of stability tomorrow?

These are not environmental questions. These are leadership questions. And they are healthy ones.

Because companies rarely fail from one sudden shock. They fail from risks they did not take seriously early enough.

The ISSB standards institutionalize foresight.

Not charity — stewardship

For a long time, sustainability was associated with generosity.

Today, it is better understood as stewardship.

A company manages not only capital, but also relationships — with customers, employees, regulators, suppliers and communities. Those relationships are part of what allows business to operate.

If they weaken, the business weakens.

The standards recognize that value is created not only by machines and balance sheets, but also by trust and resilience.

The real outcome

So no, the new reporting standards are not about hugging trees.

They are about:

• anticipating risk

• making smarter investments

• strengthening governance

• protecting workers

• and ensuring companies remain viable over time

And when companies remain viable, communities remain viable.

In the end, sustainability reporting is simply a formal way of asking companies to do what good businesses were always meant to do: Create value that lasts.

Because the true measure of a company is not just how much it earns this year — but whether it will still be helping people live better lives many years from now.