SASB Drug Retailers

1. Identify your industry code: Confirm that your organization falls under the SASB Drug Retailers standard (industry code HC-DR). SASB covers 77 industries, so verify this is the correct standard for your operations at sasb.org.

1. Download the standard: Access the SASB Drug Retailers standard for free from the SASB website (sasb.org/standards). Review the full list of disclosure topics and associated metrics specific to HC-DR.

1. Conduct a materiality assessment: Evaluate which of the SASB-defined topics are most material to your organization. For drug retailers, this typically includes hazardous waste management, customer privacy, employee health and safety, and supply chain oversight.

1. Assign internal ownership: Designate team members responsible for collecting data across each disclosure topic — typically spanning sustainability, legal, HR, operations, and IT/security departments.

1. Collect and validate metrics: Gather quantitative and qualitative data for each required metric over your reporting period (typically a fiscal or calendar year). Ensure data collection processes are documented and defensible.

1. Prepare your disclosure: Integrate SASB metrics into your annual report, sustainability report, or SEC filing. Use the standard's prescribed units and definitions to ensure comparability with peers.

1. Consider third-party assurance: While not required by SASB, engaging an external auditor to provide limited or reasonable assurance over your disclosed metrics is increasingly expected by institutional investors.

1. Monitor for updates: The IFRS Foundation (which absorbed SASB in 2022) periodically revises standards. Subscribe to updates at ifrs.org to ensure your disclosures remain aligned with the current version of the HC-DR standard.

The SASB Drug Retailers standard (HC-DR) defines disclosure topics and associated quantitative and qualitative metrics across several key sustainability dimensions specific to the drug retail sector.

Hazardous Waste Management: Organizations disclose the total amount of pharmaceutical waste generated, the percentage that is hazardous, and how it is disposed of (incineration, recycling, landfill, etc.). This reflects regulatory compliance risk and environmental stewardship in handling controlled substances and expired medications.

Customer Health & Safety: Metrics cover the number of pharmacist-to-pharmacy technician ratios, the percentage of pharmacies with a pharmacist on duty, and the number of incidents related to dispensing errors. This topic addresses patient safety risk, which is a material liability for drug retailers.

Data Security: Organizations report on the number of data breaches, the percentage of customers affected, and the legal or regulatory actions taken. Given the volume of sensitive health and financial data handled, cybersecurity is a top material issue for this industry.

Employee Health & Safety: Metrics include total recordable incident rate (TRIR), fatality rate, and near-miss frequency. Drug retailers with large hourly workforces face meaningful occupational health risks.

Supply Chain Management: Qualitative and quantitative disclosures address the percentage of suppliers audited for social and environmental compliance, and the outcomes of those audits. This reflects reputational and operational risk from sourcing practices.

Labor Practices: Metrics cover employee turnover rates, average hours of training per employee, and workforce composition. These indicators reflect human capital management quality, which is increasingly scrutinized by ESG investors.

SASB standards have become one of the most widely referenced ESG disclosure frameworks among institutional investors globally. As of the early 2020s, thousands of companies across 77 industries voluntarily disclosed using SASB standards, with adoption concentrated among large-cap publicly traded companies in North America and Europe. The 2022 merger of SASB into the IFRS Foundation and the subsequent creation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) significantly elevated SASB's global profile, as ISSB standards (IFRS S1 and S2) explicitly incorporate SASB's industry-specific metrics as the basis for industry-specific guidance.

Within the drug retail sector specifically, major chains including CVS Health, Walgreens Boots Alliance, and Rite Aid have referenced SASB metrics in their sustainability and ESG disclosures. Institutional investors — particularly large asset managers like BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street — have explicitly encouraged or required portfolio companies to report using SASB-aligned frameworks. This investor pressure has been a primary driver of adoption, particularly for publicly traded retailers subject to ESG rating scrutiny from MSCI, Sustainalytics, and Bloomberg.

SASB's primary competitors in the disclosure framework space include GRI (which targets a broader stakeholder audience), TCFD (focused on climate-related financial risks), and CDP (focused on environmental data). SASB differentiates itself through its investor-first orientation and industry-specific materiality focus. With the ISSB now embedding SASB metrics into mandatory-leaning international standards, demand for SASB expertise is expected to grow — particularly as jurisdictions like the EU, UK, and potentially the US move toward mandatory sustainability disclosure requirements.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) was founded in 2011 by Jean Rogers in San Francisco, with the mission of developing industry-specific sustainability accounting standards that help public companies disclose material ESG information to investors. Modeled loosely on the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), SASB sought to bring the same rigor and comparability to non-financial reporting that GAAP brought to financial reporting. The Drug Retailers standard was among the original set of industry standards developed during SASB's early years, reflecting the sector's unique material risks around pharmaceutical waste, patient safety, and data privacy.

SASB published its full suite of 77 industry standards in 2018 after years of industry working groups, public comment periods, and investor consultations. A major milestone came in 2022 when SASB merged with the IFRS Foundation, which simultaneously launched the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The ISSB's inaugural standards — IFRS S1 and S2 — explicitly reference SASB's industry-specific metrics as the basis for sector-level disclosure guidance, effectively embedding SASB's work into an emerging global mandatory reporting architecture. The HC-DR (Drug Retailers) standard continues to be maintained and updated under this new governance structure.