Scope and rationale

ISO/TC 322 is the technical committee responsible for the development of ISO standards relating to sustainable finance.  Sustainable finance is considered by ISO/TC 322 to mean financing, as well as related institutional and market arrangements, that support progress to achieving the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and addressing climate change.

We look to integrate sustainability considerations including environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices in all aspects of financing economic activities. 

Audience

The stakeholders involved in the field of sustainable finance include all those participating in any location(s) in the financial ecosystem from both the supply and demand sides of the financial market.

Main activities

Our sustainable finance standards will anticipate and facilitate the trend towards a more balanced sustainable approach competent in meeting environmental, social, and governance goals in even measure.

Our work program will cover three sets of standardisation activities: 

• Setting principles and framework standards (such as ISO 32210) applicable to the whole financial system to set out high-level principles for sustainable finance to guide the operations of financial institutions, and frameworks to give a structure and context for the development and role of specific standards, whether developed by ISO or the wide range of other industry bodies who are involved in such activities.
• A set of technical standards that contribute to sustainable finance taxonomies, impact assessment requirements, disclosure requirements including covenants, verification, and stewardship, for each of the major financial products including green, social and sustainable loans, bonds, funds, derivatives, insurance, private equity, and listed stocks. This work is being designed to fill gaps and contribute to the production of consistent methodologies as standardization matures across the field of sustainable finance.
• Harmonizing understanding and language.

Value to users

Our work is designed to enable member countries to finance delivery of the UN SDGs at faster pace, lower cost and reduced risk, whilst exposing financial organizations to the value of the international standardization process.

Our standards apply to a wide range of stakeholders involved from across the financial sector.
 

The Sustainable Finance Ecosystem (SFE)

The SFE can be portrayed to show inclusion of the range of products and financial instruments (2), participants (3-5); policies (6) and regulations (7); market infrastructure (8); and stakeholders (9)  that are involved in the market for sustainable finance, and all of which are enabled by a number of activities (1), of which standards is the focus of ISO/TC322.

More About TC322

As at 20 October 2022, TC322 has 26 Participating and 18 Observer members, together with 11 external liaison organizations and internal liaisons with other ISO technical committees.

For those who might be interested, we have outlined some essentials or you can go to our YouTube channel. If you would like to get involved or have any queries, you can reach our Committee Manager, Mike Henigan, at mike.henigan@bsigroup.com 

More About ISO

ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization with a membership of 165 national standards bodies. The TC322 Chair, Peter Young, has provided some background on ISO and the benefits of ISO standards on our YouTube channel.

The ISO website  at www.iso.org has a wealth of information where you can learn more about

• ISO the organization and its members
• The benefits of standards
• The standards-making process.