SASB for Agriculture & Forestry

What is SASB?

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) is an independent nonprofit organization that develops and maintains industry-specific sustainability accounting standards. These standards are designed to help businesses disclose financially material sustainability information to investors and other stakeholders in a consistent, comparable, and reliable manner. SASB standards cover 77 industries across 11 sectors, providing targeted guidance that reflects the unique sustainability challenges and opportunities each industry faces.

SASB and the Agriculture & Forestry Industry

Agriculture and forestry companies sit at the intersection of natural resource dependence and global sustainability demands, making SASB standards particularly relevant and impactful for this sector. The SASB Food & Beverage and Extractives & Minerals Processing sectors both touch on agricultural supply chains, while the Renewable Resources & Alternative Energy sector directly addresses forestry and timber operations through the SASB Forestry Management standard.

For a large-scale grain producer in the American Midwest, SASB standards require disclosure of water use intensity per metric ton of crop produced — a metric that directly affects investor confidence given growing concerns about aquifer depletion in key agricultural regions. For a timber company operating in the Pacific Northwest or in Brazil, SASB demands transparency around the percentage of wood fiber sourced from certified sustainable sources and the land area under active forest management certification such as FSC or PEFC.

The agriculture and forestry industries are among the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions globally, primarily through land-use change, methane from livestock, nitrous oxide from fertilizers, and carbon released during deforestation. SASB standards push companies in this space to quantify and disclose these emissions, giving investors a clearer picture of long-term regulatory and reputational risks. A cattle ranching company that fails to report Scope 1 emissions related to enteric fermentation, for example, may face increasing pressure from institutional investors who rely on SASB-aligned disclosures to assess portfolio-level climate risk.

Beyond emissions, agricultural companies must also address biodiversity impacts, soil health, pesticide and chemical management, and labor practices across their operations and supply chains. Forestry businesses must report on illegal logging exposure, biodiversity loss tied to monoculture practices, and community relations with indigenous and local populations whose land rights may overlap with timber concessions.

Key Requirements

SASB standards for agriculture and forestry companies include a focused set of disclosure topics and accounting metrics. The following requirements are considered financially material and are expected to be reported in annual sustainability disclosures or integrated reports:

• Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Companies must disclose total Scope 1 GHG emissions in metric tons of CO2 equivalent, including emissions from land-use change, livestock operations, and use of nitrogen-based fertilizers. A crop nutrition company, for instance, must quantify nitrous oxide emissions resulting from synthetic fertilizer application.
• Water Management: Total water withdrawn and consumed, broken down by source, must be reported. Companies operating in water-stressed regions must additionally disclose what percentage of their water use comes from those high-risk areas. Irrigation-intensive operations such as rice cultivation in California's Sacramento Valley are prime examples where this metric is closely scrutinized.
• Soil Health and Land Use: Agricultural companies should disclose the total amount of land under cultivation or management, with specific reporting on land that has been assessed for soil carbon levels, erosion risk, and regenerative agriculture practices.
• Pesticide and Chemical Management: Disclosures must include the total amount of pesticides and synthetic fertilizers applied per unit of crop output, as well as any instances of regulatory non-compliance related to chemical use. This is especially relevant for companies producing commodities such as cotton, soybeans, and corn.
• Sustainable Sourcing and Certification: For forestry companies, SASB requires disclosure of the percentage of wood fiber and pulp sourced from certified operations. Companies must identify the certifying bodies and the percentage of total volume covered by third-party certification.
• Biodiversity Impacts: Operations in or near protected areas, critical habitats, or high-conservation-value forests must be disclosed. Forestry companies must report the area of land certified to a biodiversity standard and describe management practices designed to protect endangered species.
• Labor and Human Rights in Supply Chains: Agricultural companies must disclose their approach to managing risks of forced labor, child labor, and unsafe working conditions, particularly in sourcing regions with elevated human rights risks such as parts of Southeast Asia, West Africa, and Central America.
• Food Safety and Labeling: For companies involved in food-grade agricultural production, disclosure of any food safety incidents, product recalls, and labeling compliance issues is required.

Implementation Steps for Agriculture & Forestry Companies

Aligning with SASB standards requires a structured approach that begins with understanding which specific standard applies to your business and ends with consistent, auditable public disclosure. The following steps provide a practical roadmap for agriculture and forestry companies beginning or improving their SASB reporting journey.

1. Identify the applicable SASB standard: Begin by determining which SASB industry standard or combination of standards applies to your operations. A vertically integrated company that both grows timber and processes it into paper products may need to apply both the Forestry Management and Paper & Forest Products standards. Use SASB's Sustainable Industry Classification System (SICS) to identify the correct category.
2. Conduct a materiality assessment: Not all disclosure topics within a SASB standard will carry equal financial weight for every company. Work with your sustainability, finance, and legal teams to evaluate which topics pose the greatest financial risk or opportunity for your specific business. A dryland wheat farmer will weigh water management differently than an irrigated lettuce grower in the Salinas Valley.
3. Establish a data collection infrastructure: SASB metrics require quantitative data that many agricultural companies do not currently track in a systematic way. Implement field-level data collection systems for water use, chemical inputs, emissions estimates, and land-use metrics. Software platforms designed for precision agriculture can facilitate this, including tools that track input volumes per hectare and integrate with emissions calculation frameworks.
4. Map existing certifications and programs: If your company already participates in programs such as the Rainforest Alliance, FSC, RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil), or GLOBALG.A.P., document how these align with SASB disclosure requirements. These certifications can serve as third-party evidence for several SASB metrics and reduce the verification burden.
5. Engage your supply chain: Many of the most significant sustainability risks in agriculture and forestry occur at the farm or harvest level, not in processing or distribution. Develop supplier questionnaires and contracts that require upstream partners to collect and share data on emissions, water use, certifications, and labor practices. This is essential for companies that do not own their own farms or forests but source from third parties.
6. Prepare and publish your disclosure: Draft your SASB-aligned disclosure using the standard's prescribed metrics and measurement units. Many companies include SASB disclosures within their annual report, ESG report, or in a dedicated SASB Index table that maps each metric to the relevant section of their report. Ensure your disclosure language clearly identifies the SASB standard used and the reporting period covered.
7. Seek independent assurance: For companies seeking to build investor credibility, obtaining third-party limited or reasonable assurance on your SASB metrics significantly strengthens the reliability of your disclosures. Engage an accredited assurance provider experienced in agricultural and forestry sustainability metrics before your first major public disclosure.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is SASB reporting mandatory for agriculture and forestry companies?

SASB standards are currently voluntary in most jurisdictions, but market pressure from institutional investors, lenders, and customers is rapidly making SASB-aligned disclosure a practical requirement for publicly traded and large private companies. Additionally, other mandatory frameworks such as the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the SEC climate disclosure rules in the United States are increasingly designed to be compatible with SASB, which means that companies already reporting under SASB will have a significant head start in meeting future regulatory obligations.

How does SASB differ from other sustainability reporting frameworks like GRI or TCFD?

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) focuses on the impact of a company on society and the environment broadly, addressing a wide stakeholder audience. SASB, by contrast, focuses specifically on sustainability issues that are financially material to investors. The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) addresses climate-specific risks and governance, while SASB provides industry-specific metrics across a broader range of sustainability topics. Many agriculture and forestry companies use all three frameworks together, with SASB metrics embedded within a broader TCFD or GRI-structured report.

What are the most challenging SASB metrics for agriculture companies to measure and report?

Supply chain traceability and water use data are consistently the most difficult metrics for agricultural companies to collect accurately. Tracing the origin of commodities like soy, palm oil, or cocoa back to specific farms and verifying their land-use practices requires significant investment in supplier engagement and geospatial data tools. Water use data at the field level is also technically demanding, particularly for companies sourcing from smallholder farmers who do not have metered irrigation systems. Companies typically address these gaps through statistical sampling, satellite monitoring, and progressive supplier data requirements phased in over multiple reporting cycles.

Can small and mid-sized agricultural businesses benefit from SASB, or is it only relevant for large corporations?

While SASB standards are most directly applied by publicly traded companies and large private enterprises seeking investment capital, smaller agricultural and forestry businesses increasingly benefit from understanding and applying SASB principles. As large buyers and processors — from food multinationals to paper companies — begin requiring SASB-aligned data from their supply chains, smaller suppliers who proactively adopt these metrics will be better positioned to retain and grow these commercial relationships. Additionally, access to green finance instruments such as sustainability-linked loans often favors companies that can demonstrate credible, measurable sustainability performance aligned with recognized frameworks like SASB.

Summary

SASB standards provide agriculture and forestry companies with a clear, investor-focused framework for disclosing the sustainability risks and opportunities that are most likely to affect long-term financial performance — from water scarcity and soil degradation to deforestation risk and supply chain labor standards. Companies that proactively align their reporting with SASB gain a competitive advantage in attracting capital, managing regulatory risk, and building supply chain resilience. If your organization operates in agriculture or forestry, now is the time to assess your current reporting against SASB requirements, identify data gaps, and begin the process of structured, credible disclosure.