Shifting the Standard: Akamai’s Transition to the IFRS S2 Climate Disclosure

Over the years, we have built a strong climate governance structure that ensures accountability, drives initiatives, and aligns with global best practices. The TCFD has historically served as a cornerstone of this approach, driving our climate-related reporting and risk management strategies. 

In recent years, the landscape of corporate sustainability has undergone a massive consolidation. In late 2023, the TCFD was officially disbanded — not because it failed, but because its foundational work was complete. Its monitoring responsibilities were handed over to the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) to help create a unified global baseline.

The resulting ISSB framework (specifically IFRS S1 and S2) fully absorbs the TCFD’s familiar four-pillar architecture but goes significantly further, demanding more prescriptive data, industry-specific metrics, and rigorous greenhouse gas reporting. These IFRS standards represent the new gold standard for corporate sustainability reporting. In anticipation of this global shift, we decided to publish a custom disclosure we are calling IFRS S2 with TCFD, looking back at FY25.

Taking this proactive step fundamentally underscores our readiness to adapt to evolving industry standards and complex regulatory expectations. By voluntarily adopting this framework ahead of any potential mandates, we are reinforcing our ongoing commitment to upholding rigorous transparency, data integrity, and robust accountability across all facets of our sustainability reporting.

Furthermore, this transition is not an isolated exercise, but rather a deliberate alignment with our broader organizational objectives. It continuously reinforces and operationalizes the core principles of Akamai’s responsible corporate governance strategy through:

• Transparency in climate-related risk and strategy: By disclosing both physical risks and transitional risks, we demonstrate the role climate considerations play in long-term strategic planning and operational resilience.

• Accountability through defined governance structure: We have established clear oversight responsibilities for climate-related decisions. 

• Enhancing investor confidence and meeting regulatory expectations: With interest in climate-related disclosures on the rise, we believe aligning with IFRS positions Akamai favorably in both U.S. and international markets. 

• Driving long-term value and stakeholder trust: Proactively addressing climate risks and reporting progress has helped us foster trust among key stakeholders.

Adopting the IFRS S2 standard is a massive undertaking. It’s a brand-new, incredibly complex framework that demands a whole new level of reporting rigor. But rather than sitting back and waiting for regulators to force our hand, we decided to dive in early. We chose to take on this challenge voluntarily to launch our transition, offer full transparency, and invite our stakeholders to learn alongside us as we navigate the path ahead.

Leaning into the future doesn’t mean erasing the past. Moving to this new standard certainly doesn’t mean abandoning the foundational work that got us to where we are today.

Instead, we’re taking a hybrid approach. We aren’t tossing out the TCFD framework; we’re building on top of it. By blending the strict, structural rigor of IFRS S2 with the familiar narrative and detailed context of the TCFD, we get the best of both worlds. This overlap allows us to maintain continuity for the people reading our reports and to ensure a deeper, more comprehensive picture of our climate strategy without losing the story behind the data.

Navigating a transition of this scale is a heavy lift, and the learning curve was steep. We stumbled, we iterated, and we learned a tremendous amount along the way. 

If your organization is just starting to stare down the IFRS S2 transition, here are a few practical, hard-earned lessons we wish we had known from the start:

• Don’t wait for regulators to tap their watches: It is incredibly tempting to hold off on doing extra work until it’s legally mandated — especially when your team is already stretched thin. But that lead time you have right now is your biggest advantage. 

  Finding where the data lives across different departments and building new reporting pipelines always takes longer than you think. Jumping in early gave our team the breathing room to experiment, find the gaps, and work out the operational bugs without the stress of looming compliance deadlines.

• Build a bridge, don’t bulldoze your past work: There’s a common fear that adopting a new framework means throwing away years of hard-fought TCFD reporting. You don’t have to start from scratch. We found a lot of comfort — and efficiency — in using a hybrid approach. By mapping your legacy disclosures directly to the new IFRS S2 pillars, you create a bridge. It keeps your investors grounded in a narrative they already understand, while you upgrade the data plumbing behind the scenes.

• Stop treating compliance like a chore: It is so easy for this process to devolve into an exhausting, “check-the-box” reporting drill. But when we shifted our mindset, the actual work got better. We stopped viewing this as a regulatory hurdle and started treating it as a live strategic tool. Use this transition as an excuse to break down internal silos, have deeper conversations with your teams, and show your stakeholders exactly how resilient you are building your company to be.

Ultimately, our transition from TCFD to IFRS S2 is about trust. By aligning with the latest global standards today, we are protecting the transparency and robust climate governance our stakeholders have come to expect from us. This evolution is a reflection of our leadership, yes, but more importantly, it is a promise: As the expectations around global sustainability continue to shift, Akamai will always be ready to meet them head-on.

To learn more about our strategy, we invite you to explore our new IFRS S2 with TCFD disclosure and consider the benefits of early, voluntary adoption.