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To help enable companies to consistently and comparatively disclose their exposure to — and management of — sustainability-related risks and opportunities (ROs) to investors and other financial stakeholders, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) released the global International Financial Reporting Standards Sustainability Disclosure Standards (IFRS SDS):

• IFRS S1: General requirements for disclosure of sustainability-related financial information
• IFRS S2: Climate-related disclosures

To help report using these Standards, you can contact your Workiva Customer Success Manager (CSM) or implementation partner to supplement your Sustainability Reporting workspace with additional ISSB templates, including:

• ISSB gap assessment Spreadsheet, to help identify gaps in data collection toward the disclosures and sustainability-related ROs your company deems material
• Gap assessment results and visualization Spreadsheet, to help track the gaps identified, at-a-glance
• ISSB datapoint accelerator Spreadsheet, to identify disclosure requirements related to any gaps and  import metrics into Sustainability Program to help resolve the gaps

Note: Implementation services are required to set up these supplemental templates and files in your workspace; additional costs may apply. For details, contact your implementation partner.

Perform gap assessment

From Assessments, your company can use templates to assess the materiality of sustainability-related ROs, based on key stakeholders' perspectives. After you collect the results of these assessments, use the ISSB gap assessment spreadsheet to identify the disclosure requirements and ROs that matter most to your company and focus on their related gaps. 

Step 1. Refresh connections

To start the gap assessment, refresh these sheets' incoming connections from the spreadsheet's Connections panel:

• User list, to update the spreadsheet with available workspace members who may be able to lead efforts to resolve any gaps
• Materiality results, to update the spreadsheet with the results of the materiality assessment performed from Assessments
• Framework content, to update the spreadsheet with any Program metrics already aligned with Sustainability Explorer content from ISSB or Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) 

Step 2. Identify material disclosures and ROs

From the Disclosure selection sheet of the Step 1. Scope disclosure section, choose the ISSB and SASB disclosures to include in the gap assessment — such as based on your materiality assessment — and specify any related ROs to also assess.

1. In column F, select whether to assess each section for gaps.

   Tip: For each section you assess for gaps, its disclosure ID appears in column E.

2. To also assess a section's RO-specific gaps, enter the name of its RO in column G, and — if necessary —  set up the RO-specific gap assessment.

Step 3. Assess gap in data collection

From an RO's gap assessment in the Step 2. Perform gap assessment section, assess each disclosure and RO, based on your selections in Step 1. Scope disclosure.

• For each section to assess for gaps, perform the assessment from its respective sheet — ISSB S1, ISSB S2, or SASB — in the General disclosure section.
• For each RO to assess, perform the assessment from its sheet in the RO-specific section.

To assess a disclosure or RO for gaps:

1. In Existing metric code and Existing metric name, view whether the disclosure already aligns with a metric in Sustainability Program — and if so, which one.
   

2. In Disclosure omission, select whether to omit the disclosure from your report.
   
   If Yes, enter your reasoning in Disclosure omission explanation.

   Tip: If a disclosure doesn't apply to your organization or the reporting year, select N/A.

3. If you already report the disclosure (even if only partially), enter what's disclosed — and where it appears — in Current disclosure and Current disclosure source, respectively.
   

4. In Gap, select whether the disclosure has a gap — whether in full or partial — based on Current disclosure. 
   
   If a gap exists:

   • In Gap reasoning, enter an explanation of why the gap exists.
   • In Gap type, select what's needed to resolve the gap — Data, Processes, Controls, Governance, or Disclosure.
   • In Disclosure nature, select the type of disclosure needed to resolve the gap — Quantitative, Qualitative, or Semi-qualitative.

   Note: If no gap exists, select No gap in Gap type.

5. In Reporting cycle, select the first year you plan to report the disclosure.
   
6. In Action, select the step to take to resolve the gap — such as Legal review, Regulatory interpretation, or Data gathering.
7. In Responsible team/function and Assisting function, enter the primary and secondary teams or functions — respectively — to resolve the gap.

8. In Gap lead, select the workspace member to lead the effort to resolve the gap.

   Tip: To resolve a gap that requires data gathering, align its disclosure with a metric (if necessary), and assign the gap lead as the metric value's Assignee.

After you perform the gap assessments, you can review the results for all disclosures and ROs from Step 3. Analyze assessment results, or the ISSB gap assessment results and visualization spreadsheet for more detailed analysis.

Step 4. Import metrics to resolve gaps

To help resolve any gaps identified, use the ISSB datapoint accelerator spreadsheet to generate import templates to add or update metrics in Sustainability Program. To learn more, view Import metrics for gaps in IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards.

Analyze gap assessment results

From the Gap assessment results and visualization spreadsheet, you can review and identify the gaps to resolve.

From the Results section, review the full results of the materiality and gap assessments.

Tip: To update the Results section with the latest results of the gap assessment from the Connections panel, select Incoming , and click Refresh .

• Materiality results, for the ROs identified as material for the current year, and their related topics and weighted materiality scores
• Disclosure selection results, for the gaps identified for ROs, based on their respective disclosures for IFRS and SASB
• All gap assessment results, for the gap assessment details entered for each RO

Tip: To focus on only specific results of the gap assessment, apply filters to the column headers of the All gap assessment results sheet.

From the Dashboarding section, visualize a high-level summary of gap assessment results.

• Gap assessment progress, for a summary of completed gap assessments, including the number of material ROs and topics identified, the percentage mapped to disclosures, and how many gaps have remediation actions
• Gap assessment results, for the number of gaps identified for all requirements, ROs, or Standards; or by type or action plan
• ISSB breakdown, for the percentage of gaps identified — overall or by RO — for each section of the IFRS SDS

Set up RO-specific gap assessment

By default, the ISSB gap assessment spreadsheet includes the gap assessment sheets needed for your company's sustainability-related ROs. After implementation, you can update the spreadsheet to include additional ROs as necessary.

1. In the outline, right-click [TEMPLATE] RO-specific gap assessment in Step 2. Perform gap assessment, and select Duplicate. 
   
2. Rename the copy created for the RO, and position it in the outline as necessary.
3. From the Connections panel, add an incoming connection from the RO-specific - ISSB gap assessment set-up query to the sheet. When you create the connection, select the RO in the connection's Parameters. 
4. Insert two columns to the left of the RO name column.
5. Copy the RO category and RO selection columns at the end of the sheet, then paste them into new columns.
6. For clarity, freeze the two new columns, and hide the redundant RO name, RO ID, RO description, and Disclosure topic columns.

After you set up the sheet for an RO, you can perform its gap assessment as necessary.