Sustainability reporting nearly universal among large companies, survey finds

Dive Brief:

80% of companies report on sustainability, a KPMG survey of 5,200 companies in 52 countries found, up from 75% in 2019.
"Sustainability reporting is now so nearly universally adopted that the small minority of companies not yet reporting will find themselves seriously out of step with global norms," Adrian King, a KPMG partner and co-chair of the firm’s ESG initiative, said. "Leaders of [non-reporting companies] should be aware that sustainability reporting cannot easily be solved overnight with a quick fix. Reporting methodologies and approaches are complex."
90% of companies in North America report on sustainability, the highest rate among global regions. Meanwhile, third-party assurance of sustainability information has become a majority business practice worldwide.

Dive Insight:

Sustainability is part of the broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting movement seeking to broaden company focus beyond profitability to include social values.

Robert Freedman/CFO Dive, data from KPMG

The survey makes clear sustainability issues are making deep inroads into company reporting practices, but still have a ways to go:

43% of the largest companies acknowledge the financial risk of climate change, up 15% over the last three years.
65% of large companies are trying to reduce their carbon output, up 15% over the last three years.

Companies are coalescing around a few broadly familiar standards. Two-thirds of the top 100 companies and three-fourths of other large companies use the reporting framework developed by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

20% of companies report in line with recommendations by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TFCD). The guidelines are intended to structure reporting to help executives identify climate-related risks to help in decision-making. About two-thirds of North American companies use the standard.