ceres corporate sustainability
CorporAte proGress on the Ceres roAdmAp for sustAinAbility This report, Gaining Ground: Corporate Progress on the Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability , evaluates how well 613 of the largest, publicly traded U.S. companies are integrating sustainability into their business systems and decision-making. Alyson Genovese, GRI. Both indicators are seen as important evidence that a company is prioritizing sustainability issues as important to the bottom line.However, we also find that disclosure on these indicators is limited.
Companies, particularly large businesses, have been disclosing information on their sustainability plans and performance for years. As an example, 69% of the companies assessed call on their suppliers to address environmental and social impacts, but only 34% proactively engage suppliers, providing them with the tools and resources needed to incentivize action, Lang points out.Furthermore, she says, 64% of the companies made commitments to reduce GHG emissions but only 36% of them set time-bound, quantitative targets.
The answer: not as well as the sustainability nonprofit organization had hoped.“Corporate sustainability leadership requires not only ambition in commitment, but also clear integration of environmental and social considerations within governance structures, strategic planning, and business decision-making at every level of the corporation,” says Kristen Lang, a director of the Ceres Company Network and co-author of the new report.Lang recently shared key insights from the analysis with Environmental Leader.“Our findings show more companies now understand sustainability as a business risk and opportunity, and are stepping forward in greater numbers with sustainability commitments,” Lang says.
Aug 22, 2018.
What’s interesting though, is that investors are not just asking for better sustainability disclosures - they are looking for companies to demonstrate that they have the right governance systems that support the production of these disclosures.The recently launched Climate Action 100+ initiative, which is supported by 289 investors with nearly $30 trillion in assets under management, calls on the world’s largest greenhouse gas-emitting companies to ‘improve governance on climate change, curb emissions and strengthen climate-related financial disclosures.’The corporate secretary should work proactively with their company’s investor relations and sustainability teams in a number of key ways, including tracking the growing investor focus on sustainability issues and driving the internal analysis of whether certain sustainability issues are material to their company. And most large companies don’t produce sustainability disclosures in as rigorous a manner as financial disclosures; for instance, by externally verifying their reports.The takeaway of the report is clear: The quality of sustainability disclosures provided by most businesses needs to improve to help the market make informed decisions. Ceres’ advocacy is rooted in the expectations for corporate sustainability outlined in The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability. Hannah Saltman, Ceres .
Environmental Leader ® is a registered trademark of Business Sector Media LLC. October 2019. article. Even more of a challenge: Only a quarter of those targets actually work toward reducing emissions in line with what is needed to keep global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.“Increased accountability for sustainability performance drives commitment, business integration, and action,” Lang says. Only 31% of the boards for companies assessed have formal oversight responsibility for sustainability issues, and only 24% are incentivizing senior executives by linking executive compensation to sustainability performance metrics.“Those companies that do have formal board oversight and link executive compensation to sustainability oversight are over two times more likely to have company-wide, time-bound targets to reduce GHG emissions — and also over twice as likely to formally protect the human rights of employees — than those who do not,” Lang says.What can corporate leaders do? Building on that understanding of investor focus and materiality, they should then facilitate decision-making on which issues should be brought to the board’s attention and how they should be disclosed publicly.In fact, our report finds that investors pay very close attention to whether a company’s board oversees sustainability issues, and the quality and scope of their materiality assessments.
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