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Voluntary Sustainability Disclosure: Practices & Trends

By Randi Morrison posted 11-26-2018 09:37 PM

  

According to the "State of Sustainability & Integrated Reporting 2018" from IRRC Institute's Sustainable Investments Institute (Si2), voluntary sustainability reporting among large public companies (S&P 500) has become the norm, with 78% having issued a sustainability report for the most recent reporting period - most with E&S performance metrics.

Additional key findings include: 

  • 95% of the sustainability reports include environmental performance metrics (quantified measures that are comparable year-over-year); 67% set quantified & time-bound environmental goals.
  • About 86% provide social performance metrics; however, this included even the most common social metrics (e.g., injury and accident rates); 40% set social performance goals.
  • 36% of sustainability reports included external (3rd party) assurance. About 90% of those provided external assurance only to some data - typically GHG emissions. Just 3% of reports asserted that the report or E&S data are completely externally verified.
  • Nearly all (97%) companies customized sustainability reporting models (in style, format and content) rather than closely following any one framework. Just 10 sustainability reports closely followed only one reporting framework - GRI or an industry-specific model.
  • About 40% of the S&P 500 include the concept of sustainability in their annual reports or Forms 10-K.
  • 38% include discussions of corporate responsibility or sustainability in their proxy statements beyond typical board governance and executive compensation disclosures. Many of those describe company sustainability efforts & goals—typically in a proxy statement summary prominently placed at the beginning of the filing (see, e.g., Bristol Myers Squibb's “Global Corporate Citizenship & Sustainability” disclosure).
  • 42% of companies disclosed formally designated board committee oversight of sustainability issues; nearly 90% of those oversee both E&S issues.
  • Just 14 companies published an integrated report.

 

See also IRRCi's release, and additional information & resources on our ESG page


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