The vast majority of large global companies now disclose their corporate economic, environmental and social performance, according to a survey released today.
The most recent global survey from KPMG finds that over 80% of Global Fortune 250 companies (G250) disclose their sustainability performance in "sustainability" or "corporate responsibility" reports.
The survey also looked at the largest hundred companies by revenue in 22 countries and found that overall uptake of sustainability reporting was 45% with wide variation between countries.
"These are testing times for many companies globally. While companies need to cope with the short term effects of the financial crisis, long term success requires them to also address the now irreversible realities of global warming, resources scarcity, and demographic change. It’s therefore encouraging to see the majority of large companies globally providing data on how they’re doing this," said Ernst Ligteringen, Chief Executive of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
The survey reveals that 70% of the reporting companies worldwide use the universally applicable reporting guidance from GRI. The GRI G3 Guidelines outline a disclosure framework that organizations can voluntarily, flexibly, and incrementally, adopt.
Report author Wim Bartels, Global Head of KPMG’s Sustainability Services said: "Credible reporting needs to be based on credible standards. We value the increase in reports that are based on the GRI guidelines as this contributes to the comparability and professionalism of Corporate Responsibility reporting."
Investors, consumers, employees and other stakeholders are increasingly seeking information on how companies are responding to the challenge of sustainability. They want to know how, in a company’s thinking and its actions, it is addressing the critical sustainability issues of the day. Transparent disclosure against internationally recognized guidance provides companies with the opportunity to show how they are taking leadership on these issues.
However, often the greatest sustainability impacts a company has are outside of its main operations and in its supply chain. The KPMG survey reveals that 63% of the G250 now present data on this topic in their reports.
It is a priority for GRI to promote and help implement reporting among the actual companies in the supply chain–it recently launched a Global Action Network for Transparency in the Supply Chain through which larger companies are encouraged to help supplier companies implement the GRI sustainability reporting framework for themselves.
In addition to promoting sustainability reporting throughout corporate supply chains, GRI has recently launched sector specific guidance for the financial services sector and continues to work on tailored sector-specific guidance for other industry sectors that face unique and additional sustainability issues.
As the KPMG survey shows transparency on sustainability performance has come a long way in recent years, but the journey is far from over.
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