Workiva Supports XBRL US in Pursuit of Standardizing ESG data with XBRL

XBRL US, the non-profit consortium for XBRL business reporting standards, this week announced the publication of corporate sustainability data in machine-readable XBRL format for Moody’s Corporation and Etsy, Inc.

The digitized reports were prepared by Workiva inc. (NYSE:WK), a global leader in XBRL and Inline XBRL, on the company's connected, cloud-platform. The reports utilize the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) XBRL Taxonomy developed by the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF), and demonstrate how machine-readable ESG disclosures can be prepared.

The publication of these reports represent a major milestone for XBRL US and the organizations ESG Working Group (composed of representatives from the investor, investor relations, corporate governance, public company, accounting, ESG and XBRL communities), whose mission is to investigate how the XBRL standard could be used to support the automation of climate and other ESG disclosures.

Additionally, the successful publication will serve as a guide to companies who may need to begin reporting certain climate-related disclosures in XBRL format following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) proposal to enact mandates that would enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures for investors.

The XBRL US ESG Working Group has also published a paper on “Supporting ESG Data with Standards” which addresses issues in ESG reporting today, and explains how data standardization can assist by providing relevant information in a format that supports evaluation and comparability.

Anna Kwok, Vice President of Structured Data Initiatives at Workiva, Inc, and Chair of the XBRL US ESG Working Group commented, “The recommendations in this publication reflect more than a decade of experience producing machine-readable data in XBRL. Moody’s and Etsy have helped the working group explore how a familiar data standard like iXBRL can be applied to power investor-trusted data in non-financial reporting.”