The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) released its inaugural standards, IFRS S1 and IFRS S2, in June 2023, creating a global baseline for sustainability and climate-related disclosures. Australia’s mandatory climate reporting regime draws heavily from these standards. For organisations managing IT equipment fleets, understanding what ISSB requires and how IT asset disposition fits into the framework helps you prepare for current and future disclosure obligations.
IFRS S1: General Sustainability Disclosures
IFRS S1 sets out the overall requirements for disclosing sustainability-related financial information. It applies broadly to any sustainability risk or opportunity that could reasonably be expected to affect an organisation’s cash flows, access to finance, or cost of capital. For IT asset management, this means considering whether IT equipment lifecycle decisions create material sustainability risks (such as regulatory non-compliance, data breach liability, or supply chain disruption) and whether circular IT practices create opportunities (such as cost savings through refurbishment, revenue from remarketing, or reputational benefits).
The standard requires organisations to disclose information across the same four pillars as TCFD: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets. Where IT asset management is material to your organisation, each pillar needs to be addressed with specific, relevant information about how you govern, strategise around, manage risks related to, and measure your IT sustainability performance.
IFRS S2: Climate-Related Disclosures
IFRS S2 focuses specifically on climate-related risks and opportunities. This is where IT equipment becomes directly relevant because of the significant embodied carbon in electronics and the emissions implications of end-of-life decisions.
Key requirements that connect to IT asset management include Scope 3 emissions disclosure, which for most organisations will need to include the embodied carbon of purchased IT equipment (Category 1) and emissions from waste processing (Category 5). Transition planning requirements ask organisations to describe concrete actions they are taking to reduce emissions, and shifting to circular IT models is a measurable, credible transition action. Scenario analysis may need to consider how carbon pricing, resource scarcity, or tightening e-waste regulations could affect IT procurement and disposal economics.
Industry-Specific Guidance
The ISSB standards incorporate industry-specific disclosure requirements derived from the SASB (Sustainability Accounting Standards Board) standards. Different industries have different IT intensity levels and therefore different materiality considerations for IT equipment disclosures.
Technology and communications companies face the most detailed requirements around hardware lifecycle management, as IT equipment is central to their operations and often to their products. Financial services, healthcare, and professional services organisations typically have large IT fleets where the aggregate environmental impact is material even though IT is not their primary product. Public sector and education institutions often manage substantial IT estates with particular requirements around data security and public accountability.
Regardless of your industry, if IT equipment represents a material portion of your Scope 3 emissions or waste generation, ISSB expects disclosure about how you manage it.
The Australian Alignment
Australia’s ASRS standards are closely aligned with ISSB but include some modifications for the Australian context. Key differences include the phased introduction timeline (Group 1, 2, and 3 entities), modified liability provisions during the transition period, and some additional guidance on Scope 3 reporting timelines.
For practical purposes, if you prepare your IT asset management disclosures to meet ISSB requirements, you will be well positioned for Australian compliance. The core data requirements, including emissions figures, disposition volumes, and lifecycle metrics, are the same.
Data Requirements for ISSB-Aligned Reporting
Meeting ISSB disclosure requirements for IT equipment means collecting and maintaining several categories of data. Procurement data should include the embodied carbon of purchased IT equipment, which your suppliers should be able to provide or which can be estimated using industry databases. Asset lifecycle data needs to cover the average useful life of IT equipment by category and any extensions achieved through refurbishment or reuse programmes.
Disposition data should track volumes processed, methods used (refurbishment, recycling, destruction), materials recovered, and the downstream destinations for recycled materials. Emissions data needs to cover the carbon impact of disposition activities, including transportation, processing, and the CO2e avoided through refurbishment versus new manufacture. Financial data should capture the costs of IT disposition, revenue from remarketing, and any financial impacts from regulatory compliance or non-compliance.
Assurance Considerations
ISSB-aligned reporting requires assurance, starting with limited assurance and progressing toward reasonable assurance. This means your e-waste and IT disposition data needs to be verifiable. Informal tracking, estimates without documented methodologies, and data that cannot be traced back to source records will not meet assurance requirements.
Working with an ITAD provider that produces detailed, auditable reporting is essential. The certificates of destruction, recycling reports, and environmental impact data your provider supplies become the source documents that auditors will want to review.
Getting Started
If your organisation has not yet mapped its IT asset management data against ISSB requirements, a practical starting point is to conduct a gap analysis comparing what data you currently collect against what the standards require. Common gaps include lack of embodied carbon data for purchased equipment, inconsistent tracking of disposition methods and volumes, no systematic calculation of CO2e avoidance from refurbishment, and limited visibility into downstream recycling processes.
Closing these gaps does not require a massive technology investment. It typically involves improving coordination between IT, procurement, sustainability, and your ITAD provider to ensure data flows consistently from equipment purchase through to end-of-life reporting. For more on measuring your IT disposal impact, see our guide on measuring the environmental impact of IT disposal.
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