In 2019, 82 percent of S&P 500 Index® companies produced sustainability reports according to the Governance & Accountability Institute. A significant percentage by any measure, but particularly remarkable when compared to the figure as little as six years prior when reporting companies stood at just 20 percent. Big business has moved beyond acceptance of corporate social responsibility and fully embraced it.
While the ability to say ‘we’re doing the right thing’ sounds good, there are other more tangible benefits of sustainability reporting. The process provides a clearer understanding of the material CSR issues your stakeholders consider most critical, and as a result, where your strategic efforts and resources should be placed. It affords measurable performance data to initiate benchmarks for future improvements.
By publicly declaring goals and ambitions, employees and suppliers are tasked with finding ways to do things better.
The result is often an improved workplace environment where employees are happier to work, better products and services that customers want to support, a lower investment risk to encourage longer-term stockholders, and a better community in which to operate. All of which make one wonder what’s taking the 18 percent of non-reporting companies so long to get on board?
