[Ed. note – We’d really be grateful if you would take 5 seconds to respond to this LinkedIn poll. It doesn’t ask for your information and it isn’t a sales pitch. Thank you.]
Wow – this was pretty shocking. Yesterday, The Conference Board wrote that the number of US public companies issuing sustainability reports fell 52% year over year (January 1–June 30) based on Russell 3000 companies.
Reasons for this include regulatory uncertainty, US governmental policy changes and a fundamental reassessment of sustainability reporting to begin with. Last month, I posed the question
“How often is reporting itself assessed for materiality [to external audiences]? Might be worth considering. I’ve written before about Robert Eccles and Tim Youmans 2015 ‘Statement of Significant Audiences and Materiality’ to specifically clarify the primary intended audiences for ESG reporting and context for materiality determinations – it can also be used to evaluate the importance of voluntary disclosures to begin with.”
Looks like there may be some momentum behind stopping (you physics folks – go ahead and explain that…)
On a related note: As we continue our research project on how companies present financial data on sustainability benefits, I have noticed exactly what The Conference Board found. The number of companies that have not updated reports since 2023 has been surprising.
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