Arabic Sustainability Dictionary

Carbon footprint report

A report quantifying an organisation's greenhouse gas emissions for a period, often required by regulators and sometimes subject to independent verification.

CDP (CDP)

A global non-profit, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, that runs an annual disclosure system through which companies report environmental data to investors and customers.

Comparability

The quality of information that enables users to identify similarities and differences between periods and between entities.

Comply or explain

A regulatory approach under which companies either follow a code or guideline or publicly explain why they do not.

Consolidation approach

The method a company uses to set its organisational boundary for emissions reporting: operational control, financial control or equity share.

Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD)

The EU directive (Directive (EU) 2022/2464) that requires in-scope companies to report sustainability information in line with ESRS and to obtain assurance on it.

Cross-industry metrics

Disclosure metrics that apply to all entities regardless of industry, such as greenhouse gas emissions under IFRS S2.

Delegated regulation

A legally binding EU act adopted by the European Commission to supplement a regulation, such as the delegated acts that set EU Taxonomy criteria.

Disclosure

Information that a company makes available to the public or to specific users, such as investors and regulators, in a report or filing.

Double materiality

The principle that a sustainability topic is material if the company has a significant impact on people or the environment (impact materiality), if the topic significantly affects the company's finances (financial materiality), or both.

Equity share

A consolidation approach under which a company reports emissions from each operation in proportion to its ownership share in it.

European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS)

The reporting standards adopted under the CSRD, comprising cross-cutting standards and topical standards on environmental (E1–E5), social (S1–S4) and governance (G1) matters.

eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL)

A global standard for tagging business and sustainability data so that it can be read and analysed by machines.

Financial control

A consolidation approach under which a company reports 100% of emissions from operations whose financial and operating policies it can direct to gain economic benefits.

Financial materiality

The dimension of materiality under which a topic is material if it creates risks or opportunities that could significantly affect the company's financial position, performance or cash flows.

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)

An independent international organisation whose GRI Standards are widely used for reporting an organisation's impacts on the economy, the environment and people.

Greenwashing

Making misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the environmental benefits or sustainability performance of a company, product or investment.

IFRS S1 (IFRS S1)

The ISSB standard issued in 2023 that sets general requirements for disclosing sustainability-related risks and opportunities that could affect a company's prospects.

IFRS S2 (IFRS S2)

The ISSB standard issued in 2023 that requires disclosure of climate-related risks and opportunities, including Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

Impact materiality

The dimension of materiality under which a topic is material if the company has actual or potential significant impacts on people or the environment.

Industry-based metrics

Disclosure metrics associated with particular business models or industries, such as those in the SASB Standards.

Inline XBRL (iXBRL)

A format that embeds XBRL tags in a human-readable HTML document, so a single file serves both people and machines.

Integrated reporting (<IR>)

A reporting approach that explains how an organisation creates value over time by connecting financial and sustainability information, based on the Integrated Reporting Framework.

International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)

The standard-setting board established by the IFRS Foundation in 2021 to develop IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards for investors.

Interoperability

The degree to which different reporting standards, such as ESRS, ISSB and GRI, can be applied together with minimal duplication.

Material topic

A sustainability topic that a materiality assessment has found significant enough to be reported on.

Materiality

The principle used to decide which topics or information are significant enough to be reported because they matter to users' decisions or reflect significant impacts.

Materiality assessment

The process of identifying and prioritising the sustainability topics that are material for a company's reporting and strategy.

Metric requirement

A disclosure requirement answered with a quantitative figure, such as total Scope 1 emissions or energy consumption.

Narrative requirement

A disclosure requirement answered in words rather than numbers, such as a description of governance structure, policy commitments or climate risks.