FAQ for our Integrated Transition Assessment

Climate change, nature loss and social inequality are interconnected risks that companies cannot address in isolation. Existing approaches are fragmented, making it difficult for companies to turn commitments into credible action and for stakeholders to assess real progress. Our new, unified framework will bring these issues together, providing a clearer, simpler and more practical way to evaluate how companies are managing risks, seizing opportunities and delivering meaningful, joined-up transition outcomes.

The Integrated Transition Assessment is a natural evolution of WBA's work. Built on a decade of benchmarking the world's most influential companies, it carries forward a credibility we've gained through data, insights, and partnerships, and applies it to the integrated challenges companies face. 

People and planet issues can no longer be assessed in isolation. Companies need a framework that reflects how these challenges connect, and stakeholders need assessments that keep pace with that complexity. It builds on the frameworks and standards companies already use (e.g. GRI, TCFD, TNFD, ISSB) helping them speak to and connect with one another so that reporting and strategy can move in step. This is how WBA responds to that shift while continuing to do what we've always done: using transparent, credible benchmarking to highlight leaders and laggards, drive real action, and hold companies accountable for progress. 

Previous WBA benchmarks have driven real change, and the engagement companies have put into them, matters. This new framework brings the core elements of those benchmarks - the science, relevant standards and frameworks, indicators, the methodology, and the focus on the companies with the greatest influence - into a single, connected assessment. 

WBA is responding to the challenges companies face, which no longer sit in silos, and neither should the way we assess progress. An integrated approach will support companies to better assess risks and impacts from one lens, reduce duplication across reporting, and sharpen the focus on accountability. We are listening carefully to what companies are telling us and that feedback will shape how we develop the Integrated Transition Assessment framework. We're confident this is the right direction for companies, for the stakeholders relying on this work, and for the pace of change the moment demands.

• Delivers one integrated view on transition progress.
• Consolidates competing frameworks and fragmented data.
• Streamlined questionnaire focuses on sector priorities.
• Reveals where the biggest impacts, risks and opportunities sit.
• Evolves existing reporting into a credible transition story.
• Connects transition performance to long-term value creation.

• Strengthens the basis for holding companies accountable.
• Provides cross-sector, geography evidence for policy learning.
• Enhances visibility of corporate risk management.
• Enables smarter and targeted policymaking.
• Drives international alignment on transition expectations.

• Helps to identify genuine transition leaders and laggards.
• Strengthens portfolio-level risk assessment.
• Helps assess exposure to climate, nature and social risks.
• Strengthens stewardship and enables smarter capital allocation.

• Provides evidence to demand actions.
• Connects corporate performance and impacts transparently.
• Holds companies to account on their delivery.
• Informs and strengthens coordinated advocacy.

We will no longer publish separate benchmarks. The Integrated Transition Assessment will be WBA’s only framework used to assess companies and it will be applied to the world’s most influential 2000 companies. 

However, this does not mean that we discard all the work from our existing benchmarks. Many of the priority topics and indicators previously included in the separate benchmarks will be included in the Integrated Transition Assessment. This also ensures there will be comparability with our previous assessments.

We encourage feedback on what is most important for us to maintain within the Integrated Transition Assessment. 

Within the Integrated Transition Assessment, we anticipate that some elements included within CHRB will now be scaled up, to apply to all 2,000 companies we assess. In our proposal, these elements include: 

• Board-level expertise, among others under governance linked to responsible and renumeration: The company's highest governance body has expertise with respect to its impacts on people.
• Heightened HRDD: The company describes how its risk and impact identification process(es) are triggered by new country operations, new business relationships, new human rights challenges or conflict affecting particular locations.
• Remedy process: For adverse human rights impacts which it has caused or to which it has contributed, the company describes the approach it took to provide or enable a timely remedy for victims.

We know CHRB is a valuable tool for companies and stakeholders, so we encourage feedback on what is most important for us to maintain within the Integrated Transition Assessment. 

The new methodology has been designed to assess companies across all sectors against a common set of responsibilities and expectations. However, its application will be sector-sensitive, recognising that what matters most differs significantly across industries. In practice, this means that companies will be assessed on all the indicators, but every indicator will have sector-specific scoring criteria. 

The scoring (i.e. whether a specific expectation is met by a company), will reflect the most material issues and operational context relevant to its sector. To implement this scoring system, each company will be assigned a primary sector and for each sector we will pre-determine:

• The most material risks and impacts, both social and environmental
• Where in the supply chain these impacts are most important, e.g. upstream, own operations, and/or downstream
• The specific expectations on stakeholder engagement
• The specific governance topics pertinent to that sector

This approach differs from the one used in previous WBA benchmarks, where all companies were assessed on a list of pre-established topics, despite varying in the level of materiality depending on the sector. This means that there will no longer be indicators that are 'not applicable' to some companies. All indicators will be applicable to all companies. 

• An overall reduction and simplification of indicators.
• A sector-specific approach, meaning that while all indicators will apply to all companies, the assessment and scoring logic will change depending on the sector the company is in. This will enable a more focused applicable assessment. Please see Appendix 2 of the framework proposal for further details of how this would work in practice.
• All indicators will apply to all 2000 companies, meaning that all companies will be assessed on their climate, social and nature performance (including AI).

We anticipate further differences to become clearer as we draft and finalise the scoring guidelines for the methodology. 

We are currently gathering input on how to best present the final assessment results. Learning from the existing ACT Climate assessments, we are exploring the use of a 'ladder' approach, which will compare companies based on how they perform across social, nature and climate (basic, advanced etc.). We welcome all input from companies and stakeholders through our consultation survey. 

We want to minimise the reporting burden for companies. The research across the climate, nature and social (including AI) dimensions will take place at the same time. Companies will therefore only receive and give feedback on one combined draft assessment. 

Each indicator in the proposed Integrated Transition Assessment is clearly labelled as belonging to climate, nature, or social. Where an indicator is relevant to more than one dimension, it will be repeated across all relevant dimensions. An example of this is our governance indicators, e.g. board accountabilities and expertise, and remuneration. 

• April-May 2026: company and stakeholder consultations on draft framework
• June-September 2026: feedback incorporated and framework finalised
• November 2026: final Integrated Transition Assessment Framework published
• December 2026-December 2027:  assessment cycle of 2,000 companies
• Q1 2028: first assessment published of the 2,000 companies

We welcome companies and stakeholders to provide feedback by taking our consultation survey, which closes on 20 May 2026.

Please keep an eye out on our website for consultation events planned throughout May 2026. 

During this consultation period, WBA is seeking feedback from a wide range of stakeholders, including the companies we assess, financial institutions, civil society, governments, foundations, think tanks, standard setters, and academia. Receiving feedback from companies and organisations who use our work in different ways, will help us to design the most useful framework. 

As has always been the case, companies do not opt in to being assessed by WBA. This is possible because the assessments rely only on publicly available information. The results therefore provide insights into how the world’s most influential companies perform, rather than looking only at a self-selecting group who choose to respond.

Further information, including the draft framework and supporting materials is available on our website here. 

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