According to Thompson Hine’s report: “An ESG Snapshot” on its survey of 134 in-house counsel and other senior business executives at US public (36%) and private (64%) companies across industries, company sizes, and locations, more than 80% of public companies and 17% of private companies are providing public ESG disclosures and more than 70% of public companies and 15% of private companies are publishing sustainability reports.
While DE&I is the top focus area for current or planned disclosure for both public and private companies, not surprisingly, private companies significantly lag public companies in their current or planned disclosure across a number of enumerated ESG topics. Other than with regard to disclosure of workforce turnover rate data, this distinction between public and private company disclosure also applies to disclosure of quantitative metrics, as shown here:
Both public and private companies reported data collection/verification as their top, near-term ESG concern by a large margin.
The report also includes benchmarking data on the status of companies’ implementation of ESG strategies, use of external standards/frameworks, third-party assurance, ESG disclosure channels, management oversight responsibility, and the role of in-house counsel.
See Thompson Hine’s release; these pieces from Bloomberg Law and PracticalESG.com; and additional resources on our Sustainability page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!