Michael Kraten

A mere four months ago, International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) S1 and S2 were issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). For the first time, a major global entity with the authority to mandate corporate disclosures issued a wide array of sustainability reporting standards.

By Michael Kraten, PhD, CPA Data analysts who develop flood risk models for property insurers, land developers, and government zoning officers have a new variable to plug into their data sets. Climate Tipping Points (CTPs) are now becoming important factors in risk forecasts. The two most famous CTPs, of course, were introduced to the general public during the 2015 United…

Business lobbyists, in their efforts to persuade regulators to decline to require Scope 3 carbon emission disclosures, have been leaning heavily on the argument that the category is inherently impractical because it double-counts what it purports to measure. The argument, though, has failed to prevent the State of California from adopting that very disclosure requirement.

Consider, for a moment, the supply chain that must be employed to produce and sell cups of coffee to morning commuters at a drive through service window. How many factors must the coffee bar’s analyst include in the process flow analysis?

Moody’s 2022 TCFD Report discloses environmental performance metrics in accordance with the policies and standards of the Task Force for Climate-Related Financial Disclosures. In its 47 page PDF document, Moody’s employs the phrase “Science Based” 26 times to describe its targets or standards.

The 1975 summer movie Jaws portrayed a suburban New York beach community that recoiled from the assault of a voracious great white shark. Although the film was a work of fiction, a shark (in reality) seriously injured a swimmer last week near a New York City beach. It was the latest shark attack to strike the Big Apple during the…

The Opening Ceremony’s Parade of Nations may prove to be the most unique event of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Instead of situating the event in a stadium, the Olympic Committee will place the athletes on boats and send them down the River Seine.

Do you remember George Orwell’s classic novel Animal Farm? In that fable of a farm that is managed by its own livestock, the pigs become the leaders of the rural community. Although that didn’t quite occur last week, a pig protection law did manage to survive a Supreme Court decision that may impact the future of sustainability regulation.

In the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, a trio of meteorological “super storms” triggers a global descent into a second Ice Age. How much time do the storms need to destroy the planet? A few days to a week is all they require to wreak havoc on the world.