What balance must sustainability disclosure guidance achieve according to the text?

Sustainability disclosure guidance must strike a balance between flexibility and usefulness to investors because these elements are crucial for ensuring that the information disclosed meets the needs of users who rely on this data for making informed decisions.

Flexibility allows companies to tailor their sustainability disclosures to reflect their unique circumstances, industry characteristics, and stakeholder expectations. This adaptability can encourage a broader range of companies to engage in sustainability reporting, thus enhancing the overall quality and quantity of disclosed information. However, it must be paired with usefulness to investors, ensuring that the information provided is relevant, comparable, and reliable, which is essential for making investment decisions and assessing risks and opportunities related to sustainability.

While considerations such as cost-effectiveness, efficiency, transparency, and liability are indeed important, the primary goal of sustainability disclosure is to ensure that the information serves the interests of investors effectively and is presented in a manner that acknowledges the dynamic nature of sustainability practices. Therefore, balancing flexibility with the need for useful information for investors directly addresses the primary stakeholders in sustainability accounting.