Disclosure topics are industry-specific sustainability issues that are financially material to a company’s performance, and they come with a defined set of metrics and reporting guidance to standardize what should be disclosed. In SASB, these topics are chosen because they matter to investors from a financial perspective, not just because they are environmental or regulatory concerns. They cover environmental, social, and governance areas, and each topic links to recommended metrics so companies can report consistently and comparably within an industry. This is why the option describing industry-specific, financially material issues with metrics and guidance best captures what disclosure topics are. The other statements misplace the scope (global regulatory topics, environmental-only, or financial performance-only).

Both frameworks address climate disclosures but from different angles, and they complement each other. SASB provides industry-specific metrics that reflect financially material climate-related issues for a given sector, helping investors compare performance across companies. TCFD offers a broad framework for governance, strategy, risk management, and scenario analysis to assess resilience to climate risks and how those risks are managed. Because these aims are complementary, they can be used together: report TCFD’s governance and scenario analysis alongside SASB’s sector-focused metrics to deliver a complete, material view for investors. The other options aren’t accurate because SASB doesn’t replace TCFD, the two aren’t incompatible, and TCFD SAMPLEincludes more than just metrics.

The SASB Materiality Map helps you identify which sustainability topics are financially material for a specific industry. It organizes topics across environmental, social, and governance areas and highlights those that could impact a company’s financial performance, risk profile, cost of capital, or operational efficiency. This guidance focuses disclosures on topics that matter to investors, ensuring the information reported is relevant to financial decision-making. It’s industry-specific, so material topics vary by sector. It’s not about prescribing regulations, making financial forecasts, or judging data accuracy—it's about pinpointing the topics most likely to influence financial value.

Industry norms explain how companies in the cocoa supply chain typically address child labor through collaboration with suppliers and sector-wide initiatives. These norms shape expectations for due diligence, supplier engagement, auditing, and remediation across the industry. While direct financial impact, regulatory requirements, and stakeholder concerns can influence actions, the described approach—relying on supplier relationships and collaborative initiatives to tackle the issue—fits best with industry norms because it reflects shared, sector-wide practices rather than isolated financial or legal pressures.