Following the Business Roundtable's recently updated "Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation," (reported on here), the Governance & Accountability Institute researched and analyzed the sustainability reporting practices of companies whose CEO's had signed onto the statement assertedly "to gauge the nature and extent of BRT corporations walking-the-talk of sustainability et al" - culminating in this new report: "Analysis of The Business Roundtable Companies' ESG Reporting Practices."
Key findings are as follows:
- 93% (181 of 193) of BRT company CEOs signed on to the Statement as of November 2019 (93% of its public company members and 94% of its private company members).
- 85% (154 of 181) of the 181 signatory companies publish sustainability reports.
- Of the 154 companies that publish sustainability reports, the GRI framework is the most widely used, with 67% using the GRI Standards for their reporting.
- 36% of those that publish sustainability reports have information assured by a third party.
- 58% of those that publish sustainability reports have adopted one or more Sustainable Development Goals, with Climate Action being the most commonly adopted.
- TCFD recommendations were mentioned by 17% of companies publishing sustainability reports.
- SASB was used in some way or cited in 19% of sustainability reports
G&A Institute Chair Hank Boerner commented: "We encourage the reading of the respective companies’ reports to gain an understanding of what the firms are doing to demonstrate purpose."
See the G&A's release, and these recent reports: "Business Roundtable: "Corporate Purpose" Color & Context," "Assurance of Non-Financial Information: Auditor's Role Evolves," "GRI Launches New Global Tax Disclosure Standard," and "Assurance of Non-Financial Disclosure: Here's How!" This post first appeared in the weekly Society Alert!