Donnelley Financial Solutions' (DFS) new whitepaper: "The Future of ESG and Sustainability Reporting: What Issuers Need to Know Right Now" does a nice job of educating companies on ESG disclosure-relevant considerations with an emphasis on investor-driven priorities in the context of an increasing number of ESG approaches, factors, and players - including ESG rating agencies and standards/frameworks-setters, that can make attempts to tackle this area daunting at best.
Among the noteworthy insights: Governance & Accountability Institute EVP Louis Coppola estimates that as much as 25% - 30% of the data for a given company provided by some of the ESG rating agencies he has analyzed may be inaccurate or incomplete - thus effectively imposing on companies a duty to be aware of and respond to this 3rd-party-generated information, which DFS expects will continue to be relied upon by investors regardless of enhanced corporate disclosures.
The focus of the guidance is the company's generation and disclosure of decision-useful ESG data based on its investors' risk-based priorities and its identification of material issues that bear on its strategy and long-term viability.
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See also the instructive "Checklist for Creating Decision-Useful ESG Disclosures" on pages 12-13 of the paper; the sample sustainability/corporate social responsibility/E&S proxy statement disclosures on pages 185 - 197 of DFS's: Guide to Effective Proxies (posted on our Annual Meeting page), and additional information & resources on our Sustainability/ESG page. This post first appeared in last week's Society Alert!
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