SASB Cruise Lines

1. Download the SASB Cruise Lines Standard: Access the standard for free at sasb.org. The Cruise Lines standard falls under the Transportation sector and covers six disclosure topics with associated metrics.

1. Conduct a Materiality Assessment: Review the SASB Cruise Lines disclosure topics against your company's operations to confirm which metrics are most material to your business and investors.

1. Assemble Your Reporting Team: Engage sustainability, finance, operations, and legal/compliance teams. Assign ownership of each disclosure topic (e.g., environmental team for GHG emissions, HR for labor practices).

1. Collect Baseline Data: Gather 12 months of operational data for each required metric — including Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, air pollutant emissions, waste generated, water consumed, and customer health and safety incidents.

1. Draft Disclosures: Prepare quantitative metrics and qualitative narrative disclosures aligned with SASB's defined units of measure and accounting guidance. Use the SASB Implementation Primer for guidance on formatting and methodology.

1. Consider Third-Party Assurance (Optional): While not required by SASB, many companies engage an external assurance provider to verify the accuracy of their disclosures, which increases investor confidence.

1. Publish and Communicate: Integrate SASB-aligned disclosures into your annual sustainability report, integrated report, or SEC filing. Reference the SASB Cruise Lines standard explicitly so investors and ESG raters can identify your alignment.

1. Monitor for Standard Updates: SASB periodically revises its standards through a public comment process. Subscribe to IFRS Foundation updates to stay current with any changes to the Cruise Lines standard.

The SASB Cruise Lines standard defines six core disclosure topic areas, each with specific quantitative metrics and qualitative accounting guidance that companies are expected to report against.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Companies disclose gross Scope 1 GHG emissions (metric tons CO₂-e), percentage covered by emissions-limiting regulations, and a discussion of long-term and short-term strategy or plan to manage GHG emissions and related risks and opportunities.

Air Quality: Disclosures cover air emissions of NOx, SOx, and particulate matter (PM10), reported in metric tons. This reflects the cruise industry's significant contribution to port-area air pollution from ship engines.

Waste Management: Companies report total weight of waste generated, percentage recycled, and percentage hazardous. This topic addresses the management of solid waste, food waste, and hazardous materials generated onboard.

Water Management: Metrics include total fresh water consumed, percentage recycled, and percentage in regions with High or Extremely High Baseline Water Stress. Cruise ships are major consumers of fresh water, making this a material topic.

Customer Health & Safety: Companies disclose the number of fatalities and injuries to passengers and crew, the number of reportable disease outbreaks, and a description of management systems for health and safety. This topic reflects the unique public health risks of large-vessel operations.

Labor Practices: Disclosures include the number of employee work stoppages, the percentage of employees covered by collective bargaining agreements, and a description of policies and practices related to workforce health, safety, and fair labor standards — particularly relevant given the international nature of cruise ship crews.

SASB standards have become one of the most widely referenced ESG disclosure frameworks globally, particularly among institutional investors and publicly traded companies. As of the mid-2020s, thousands of companies across 77 industries reference SASB standards in their sustainability reports, SEC filings, and investor communications. The Cruise Lines standard, while applicable to a relatively small number of large operators, is used by major players including Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Group, who face significant investor scrutiny on environmental and social performance.

The 2022 consolidation of SASB into the IFRS Foundation and its integration into the ISSB's IFRS S1 and S2 standards was a landmark development that significantly elevated SASB's global credibility. ISSB explicitly incorporates SASB industry-specific metrics as the basis for industry-level disclosure guidance, meaning SASB Cruise Lines metrics are now embedded within an internationally recognized accounting standard. This has accelerated adoption, particularly among companies reporting to European and Asian investors who are increasingly aligned with IFRS sustainability standards.

In the cruise industry specifically, ESG reporting pressure has intensified following high-profile environmental incidents, pandemic-era public health crises, and growing scrutiny of labor practices aboard international-flagged vessels. SASB's Cruise Lines standard competes for mindshare with GRI Standards (which offer broader stakeholder-oriented reporting) and CDP (which focuses specifically on climate and water). However, SASB's investor-centric, financially material approach gives it a distinct positioning that is increasingly preferred by capital markets participants. The framework's free availability and integration with ISSB make it the de facto baseline for investor-grade cruise industry ESG disclosure.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) was founded in 2011 by Jean Rogers in San Francisco, with a mission to develop industry-specific sustainability accounting standards that help businesses disclose financially material ESG information to investors. Modeled on the approach of financial accounting standards bodies, SASB sought to bring rigor and comparability to sustainability reporting by identifying the ESG topics most likely to affect the financial condition or operating performance of companies within specific industries. The Cruise Lines standard was developed as part of SASB's Transportation sector standards, with provisional standards released around 2014 and codified standards published in 2018 following extensive industry and investor consultation.

A pivotal milestone came in 2022 when SASB merged with the Value Reporting Foundation and was consolidated into the IFRS Foundation, which had established the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). This integration effectively elevated SASB's industry-specific metrics from a voluntary U.S.-centric framework to the foundation of globally recognized IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards. The ISSB's IFRS S1 standard explicitly references SASB industry standards — including Cruise Lines — as the primary source of industry-specific disclosure requirements, dramatically broadening their international adoption and regulatory relevance.