Chair Message
In a year marked by accelerating change, the Canadian Sustainability Standards Board (CSSB) advanced the work Canada needs: setting high-quality, globally aligned sustainability disclosure standards that help support confidence in Canadian markets and the long-term value, competitiveness, and resilience of Canadian companies; and the enhancement of access to capital. We moved from foundation to execution, delivering key milestones that strengthen Canada’s sustainability-disclosure infrastructure in the Canadian public interest.
I was honoured to assume the role of Chair last May, following Bruce Marchand’s service as Interim Chair. Bruce led the CSSB through a complex period, ensuring the conditions for durable impact. I am pleased to build on this strong foundation.
We finalized the CSSB’s inaugural 2025-2028 Strategic Plan, setting clear priorities, a measurable focus, and a roadmap for sustained delivery. The strategic plan centres on three priorities that, together, position the Board to set and maintain standards fit for the Canadian context and aligned with the global baseline:
- Priority A: Establishing the CSSB as the reference source for sustainability disclosure standards in Canada and supporting their implementation.
- Priority B: Including Indigenous Peoples in sustainability disclosure standard setting.
- Priority C: Contributing to the development of international sustainability disclosure standards.
This work is critical to ensuring high-quality reporting, aligned with a global baseline – helping interested and affected parties better understand how sustainability-related risks and opportunities may impact an entities’ performance, value, and resilience.
This year also reinforced a core reality: Economic, geopolitical, legal, and regulatory conditions can shift rapidly, impacting the sustainability-disclosure landscape. Considering the Canadian context and input from interested and affected parties, we refined our 2025-2028 Strategic Plan to improve our agility, resilience and relevance, and we adjusted our 2025-2026 annual plan to sustain momentum while staying responsive to emerging developments.
Against these external developments, supporting widespread adoption of the Canadian Sustainability Disclosure Standards (CSDSs) remained a central focus. Canada needs to keep pace globally – nearly 40 jurisdictions have adopted or otherwise use the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards or are finalizing steps toward introducing them into their regulatory frameworks. We broadened our engagement, through direct discussions, presentations, education sessions, and development of implementation materials. In June 2025, the CSSB released the Guide on Adopting a Climate-first Approach in Sustainability Reporting. This resource is a practical tool to help entities apply a “climate-first” approach, focusing on climate-related risks and opportunities by applying transition relief before expanding to other sustainability topics.
We are encouraged by the growth in sustainability disclosures by Canadian entities that reference the CSDSs and by investors’ continued demand for this information. Many Canadian companies are building capacity and assessing preparedness as they progress toward implementing our standards.
We also issued the Exposure Draft, “Proposed Amendments to CSDS 2: Amendments to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Disclosures,” aligned with the final amendments to IFRS S2 Climate-related Disclosures, with Canadian modification. If approved, these amendments would be the first update to the CSDSs since their adoption in December 2024, demonstrating that our standards will be maintained through transparent due process and will evolve as needed to remain credible and implementable.
We broadened engagement across our community, keeping the focus where it belongs – on issues that matter in the Canadian context. We also advanced work to develop innovative, respectful and culturally appropriate approaches to engaging with Indigenous Peoples and to integrating Indigenous Peoples’ rights into our standard-setting processes. This work is shaping how we operate – improving how we listen, how we work together, how we prioritize, and how we deliver.
I am also pleased to highlight our recent reappointment to the IFRS Foundation Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum for another three-year term (2026-2028). In this role, we continue to strengthen our ability to help shape international standard setting and ensure Canadian perspectives are reflected in the global baseline.
Fiscal 2025-2026 was a year of clear direction and purposeful execution in the face of external headwinds. I thank CSSB members and our staff for the rigour, professionalism, and commitment they bring to this work. As we thank outgoing members and welcome new ones, we remain committed to standards and guidance that are decision-useful, implementable, and firmly grounded in Canada’s public interest.
Wendy Berman
CSSB Chair
Highlights of CSSB Performance
Our inaugural multi-year strategic plan
We finalized our inaugural 2025-2028 Strategic Plan, which sets a clear direction for our work plan, builds on our foundation, outlines our key priorities, and sets a strong path forward to serve the Canadian public interest. We heard from many respondents about the impact of emerging developments on sustainability reporting and the importance of ensuring that the CSDSs remain responsive to domestic and international market developments. The CSSB acknowledged this feedback and refined its strategic plan to reflect our commitment to supporting market adoption of CSDSs, emphasizing the need for us to remain adaptable to the evolving landscape and to our interested and affected parties’ diverse needs.
Engaging with our community
The CSSB proactively enhanced communications and outreach efforts. We shifted our focus to reinforcing the business value of high-quality sustainability reporting and supporting market adoption of the CSDSs. We launched these efforts at Canada’s Climate Week XChange in Toronto, where we hosted panel discussions on the adoption of our standards and how they can support Canadian entities’ growth, value, resilience and competitiveness in a global context.
In addition, the CSSB approved the formation of the Sustainability Standards Advisory Committee and the Sustainability Technical and Implementation Advisory Committee. They will support us in addressing practical implementation challenges, provide expert input into the Board’s standard-setting agenda, identify emerging issues and support the meaningful inclusion of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, interests, and perspectives. We received an overwhelmingly positive response to our public call for members. We anticipate both Committees will be operational this year.
International influence
We are pleased to announce the CSSB’s three-year reappointment as a member on the IFRS Foundation’s Sustainability Standards Advisory Forum. This reappointment strongly reflects the CSSB’s contributions to and engagement with international standard-setting progress to date. Our ongoing membership allows the CSSB to continue to actively contribute to the development of the global baseline of sustainability-related disclosures by providing Canadian perspectives on major technical issues related to the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) standard-setting agenda and activities.
We actively engaged with the ISSB on their standard-setting activities, including amendments, guidance, and research. We responded to ISSB’s exposure drafts, “Targeted Amendments to IFRS S2” and “Proposed Amendments to the SASB Standards Phase 1, Part 1,” providing important Canadian perspectives and interests on the proposed amendments.
In addition, we held bilateral meetings with jurisdictional standard setters to share insights, experiences, and views on sustainability disclosure standard setting and adoption.
Amendments to standards
The CSSB issued the Exposure Draft, “Proposed Amendments to CSDS 2: Amendments to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Disclosures.” If approved, the proposed amendments would align CSDS 2, Climate-related Disclosures, with targeted amendments to IFRS S2, which the ISSB approved in December 2025. While the CSSB recognizes the benefits of global standardization of sustainability disclosure standards, we look forward to continuing to gain Canadian input and perspectives on the proposed amendments to inform our final standard.
We also consulted with Canadian entities on the ISSB's Part 1, Phase 1 Proposed Amendments to the SASB Standards. These proposals aim to strengthen the alignment of disclosures on topics such as GHG emissions, energy, water, labour practices, and workforce health and safety. The SASB Standards provide industry-based guidelines that play an important role in assisting entities in identifying financially material sustainability-related risks and opportunities. The project focuses on enhancing the SASB Standards’ interoperability with IFRS S1 General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information and IFRS S2 (and, by extension, CSDS 1, General Requirements for Disclosure of Sustainability-related Financial Information, and CSDS 2).
We have been actively monitoring the ISSB’s nature-related disclosures research and standard-setting projects (formerly the biodiversity, ecosystems and ecosystem services project) to assess implications for Canada and inform our strategic priorities. We have also engaged with the ISSB to provide Canadian perspectives and to help shape the direction of key technical issues on this topic.
Creating new pathways for Indigenous Peoples
As we advance this work, we are continually learning and reflecting. Creating new pathways for Indigenous Peoples’ participation in sustainability standard setting is a long-term, trust-based endeavor that must be guided by culturally appropriate engagement. After initial progress, we are taking time to refine our approach and strengthen the foundational work with advice, engagement, research, and planning, so that next steps are appropriately sequenced and positioned for sustained success.
We continue to build on the learnings from prior engagement efforts (as outlined in our Indigenous Matters: What We Heard) and ongoing education. We continue to enhance outreach and engagement with Indigenous Peoples to ensure their voices, needs, and interests are embedded in the standard-setting process domestically and internationally. We also regularly engage with the ISSB to encourage more meaningful engagement with Indigenous Peoples on ISSB standard-setting activities, including its exposure drafts.
This work is supported by continued capacity-building among CSSB members and staff, strengthening the knowledge and understanding needed to inform foundational research and guide the development of a culturally appropriate path forward.
Public sector sustainability standards
The CSSB assumed lead responsibility for assessing and determining the appropriate path forward for public sector sustainability disclosure standards in Canada. Working with the Public Sector Accounting Board (PSAB), the CSSB has taken early steps to assess and plan for this new stream of work. This project will continue to rely on a high degree of connectivity and collaboration between PSAB and the CSSB to leverage complementary subject-matter expertise and ensure an approach to sustainability reporting for Canadian public sector entities that serves the Canadian public interest.