In a recent letter to the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), AMWA submitted its comments on the Board’s draft sustainability accounting standard for water utilities, noting that it misrepresents water sector utilities.
SASB was incorporated in 2011 to develop sustainability accounting standards for the disclosure of “material sustainability information in mandatory SEC filings.” Although AMWA members are not publicly traded companies, the degree to which bond ratings or lending decisions may be influenced by SASB’s proposed standard is of concern.
In an initial letter to SASB on January 4, 2016, AMWA stated that a lack of early and direct outreach to the association and other water sector organizations was a significant oversight and led to a draft standard that is “flawed and in need of significant additional work before it should be considered.” After gathering input from its Sustainability Committee, AMWA submitted a follow-up comment letter stating, “Upon further review [of] SASB’s proposed Water Utilities Sustainability Accounting Standard, AMWA has concluded that the draft standard misrepresents water sector utilities due to many gross inaccuracies, including differences between publicly owned and privately owned utilities and water, wastewater and stormwater utilities.” AMWA’s letter provides examples of the association’s concerns with the draft.
AMWA plans to follow up with SASB to further discuss how to appropriately characterize water utility sector sustainability practices.