SASB Oil & Gas – Midstream

1. Download the SASB Standard: Access the SASB Oil & Gas – Midstream standard for free from the SASB website (sasb.org). No registration is required to download the standard document.

1. Review Disclosure Topics: Familiarize yourself with the six primary disclosure topics defined for the midstream sector, including greenhouse gas emissions, air quality, ecological impacts, water & wastewater management, pipeline safety, and workforce health & safety.

1. Use the SASB Navigator: Use the free SASB Navigator tool (navigator.sasb.org) to explore the specific accounting metrics, units of measure, and reporting guidance for each disclosure topic relevant to your operations.

1. Conduct a Materiality Assessment: Map your company's operations against the SASB-defined material topics to determine which metrics are most relevant to your midstream business activities (e.g., pipeline transport, storage terminals, LNG facilities).

1. Gather Internal Data: Work with operations, EHS, finance, and legal teams to collect the quantitative and qualitative data required for each applicable metric — including Scope 1 GHG emissions, methane intensity, and pipeline incident rates.

1. Prepare Disclosures: Draft your SASB-aligned disclosures, typically integrated into your annual sustainability report, ESG report, or SEC filings (e.g., 10-K or proxy statement). Use the standard's prescribed units and definitions to ensure comparability.

1. Consider Third-Party Assurance: Optionally engage an independent assurance provider to verify your disclosures, which can enhance credibility with institutional investors and ESG rating agencies.

1. Publish and Communicate: Publish your disclosures and notify key stakeholders — including institutional investors, ESG rating agencies (MSCI, Sustainalytics), and data providers (Bloomberg, Refinitiv) — of your SASB-aligned reporting.

The SASB Oil & Gas – Midstream standard defines six primary disclosure topic areas, each with specific quantitative accounting metrics and qualitative activity metrics that organizations are expected to report.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Companies report gross global Scope 1 GHG emissions, percentage covered under emissions-limiting regulations, and GHG emissions intensity per unit of throughput. Methane emissions and percentage of pneumatic devices and compressor stations audited are also required.

Air Quality: Disclosures cover emissions of NOx, SOx, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from operations, reflecting the sector's significant air quality footprint from compressor stations and processing facilities.

Ecological Impacts: Organizations report the number and volume of hydrocarbon spills, the percentage of spills in environmentally sensitive areas, and the quantity of hazardous waste generated and disposed of. Biodiversity impacts from pipeline rights-of-way are also addressed.

Water & Wastewater Management: Metrics include total water withdrawn and consumed by source, and the percentage in regions with high or extremely high baseline water stress.

Pipeline Safety: This topic covers the number of pipeline incidents — including those resulting in fatalities, injuries, or significant property damage — reported to regulators, as well as pipeline integrity management program details.

Workforce Health & Safety: Companies disclose total recordable incident rate (TRIR), fatality rate, and near-miss frequency, reflecting the physical hazards inherent in midstream operations.

Each topic includes both quantitative metrics (with prescribed units and calculation methodologies) and qualitative discussion prompts, enabling investors to assess both performance and management approach.

SASB standards have become one of the most widely referenced ESG disclosure frameworks globally, particularly among North American publicly traded companies. As of the mid-2020s, thousands of companies across 77 industries reference SASB standards in their sustainability or ESG reports, with adoption especially strong in the energy, financial services, and real estate sectors. The Oil & Gas – Midstream standard is used by major pipeline and midstream operators including Kinder Morgan, Williams Companies, Enbridge, and TC Energy, driven largely by pressure from large institutional investors such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, who have explicitly requested SASB-aligned disclosures from portfolio companies.

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. The ISSB's inaugural standards — IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 — explicitly reference SASB industry standards as the primary source of industry-specific disclosure guidance, effectively embedding SASB metrics into an internationally recognized regulatory framework. This has accelerated adoption in Europe, Asia-Pacific, and other regions where IFRS-based reporting is mandated or preferred.

Compared to alternatives, SASB occupies a distinct niche: it is more investor-focused and financially material than GRI (which is broader and stakeholder-oriented), more industry-specific than TCFD (which focuses on climate risk governance), and less prescriptive than ISO 14001 (which is a management system standard). The primary competitive tension is with GRI, which has broader global adoption particularly outside North America. However, many companies now use both frameworks simultaneously — GRI for broad stakeholder reporting and SASB for investor-grade financial materiality. Demand for SASB-aligned reporting is expected to grow as mandatory ESG disclosure regulations (SEC climate rules, EU CSRD, ISSB-aligned national mandates) increasingly reference SASB metrics as the industry-specific baseline.

The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) was founded in 2011 by Jean Rogers in San Francisco, California, with a mission to develop industry-specific sustainability accounting standards that help public companies disclose material, decision-useful information to investors. Modeled loosely on the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), SASB was designed to fill a gap in financial reporting: while companies were increasingly disclosing ESG information, there was no standardized, industry-specific framework that connected sustainability performance to financial materiality. The Oil & Gas – Midstream standard was among the first industry standards developed, reflecting the sector's significant environmental and safety risks.

SASB published its full suite of 77 industry standards in 2018 after years of industry working groups, public comment periods, and pilot testing. In 2019, SASB merged with the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) to form the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF). A landmark consolidation followed in 2022 when the VRF was absorbed into the IFRS Foundation, placing SASB standards under the stewardship of the newly formed International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The ISSB's first standards (IFRS S1 and IFRS S2), published in June 2023, formally incorporated SASB industry-specific metrics as the recommended source of sector-level disclosure guidance, cementing SASB's role as the de facto global standard for investor-focused sustainability reporting.