ExeQuity’s “Board Committee Oversight of ESG” dissects board committee responsibilities for ESG generally, and by enumerated major categories (e.g., environmental, DE&I, CSR), for the S&P 100 based on the firm’s review of committee charters.
Among the key takeaways:
- Of the 93 companies whose committee charters expressly incorporate ESG oversight, nearly half allocate oversight responsibilities to two committees and 17% allocate oversight to three or more.
- The nominating and governance committee is most commonly tasked with ESG oversight (75%), followed by the compensation committee (61%), a committee other than the three key committees (31%), and the audit committee (17%).
- DE&I, which typically is the purview of the compensation committee, is the most common committee oversight responsibility disclosed.
- The nominating and governance committee is most commonly responsible for environmental, sustainability, CSR, and “general ESG” oversight.
Notably, 17% of the 93 companies that expressly allocate ESG oversight to one or more committees include “Sustainability” or “ESG” in at least one committee name, which the firm expects is a growing trend.
See these prior reports: “ESG: Board Oversight Structure” and “Board ESG Oversight Benchmarking”; this collaborative publication from the Society and Thompson Hine: “ESG Governance: Board and Management Roles & Responsibilities” (reported on here); and additional resources on our Sustainability page.
This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!