Oecd legal Instruments

VI.A.1. Sustainability-related information could be considered material if it can reasonably be 
expected to influence an investor’s assessment of a company’s value, investment or voting 
decisions.
Without prejudice to voluntary initiatives or specific environmental regulations that may contain additional 
disclosure requirements, corporate disclosure frameworks require at a minimum information on what is 
material to investors’ assessment of a company’s value, investment or voting decisions. This assessment 
typically includes the value, timing and certainty of a company’s future cash flows over the short, medium 
and long-term. 
Material sustainability-related information could include environmental and social matters that can 
reasonably be expected to affect a company’s asset value and its ability to generate revenues and long-term 
growth. However, a company’s own impact on society and the environment could also be considered material 
if it is expected to affect the company’s value, such as environmental liabilities under a jurisdiction’s existing 
laws or regulations, or greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that may be capped or taxed in the future. Likewise, 
human rights and human capital policies, such as training programmes, retention policies, employee share 
ownership plans, and diversity strategies, can communicate important information on the competitive 
strengths of companies to market participants.
The determination of which information is material may vary over time, and according to the local context, 
company-specific circumstances, and jurisdictional requirements. The assessment of material information 
may also consider sustainability matters that are critical to a company’s workforce and other key 
stakeholders. For example, sustainability risks that may not seem to be financially material in the short-term 
but that are relevant to society may become financially material for a company in the long-term. In addition, 
some jurisdictions also consider what is material to investors to include companies’ influence on non-
diversifiable risks. For example, an investor may consider that the value created by a profit maximising major 
carbon emitting company in their portfolio would be offset by losses in the value of other investee companies 
affected by climate change. In this context, some jurisdictions may also require or recommend disclosing 
sustainability matters critical to a company’s key stakeholders or a company’s influence on non-diversifiable 
risks.