Last year, we wrote about findings from The Conference Board, indicating that the number of sustainability reports issued year-over-year fell by 52%. Now that 2025 is over, The Conference Board has revisited those numbers. The results aren’t good, but they are substantially better than previously reported. Rather than a 52% decrease, the final results indicated only a 17% slip in sustainability reporting in 2025. The Conference Board states:
- “Full-year sustainability reporting declined—but far less than midyear data suggested. Across the year, 1,444 Russell 3000 companies published sustainability reports in 2025, compared with 1,739 in 2024—a 17% decline. The sharp midyear drop largely reflected delays in publication rather than widespread abandonment of sustainability reporting.
- Large companies mostly maintained reporting practices. Among the S&P 500, reporting fell only slightly—from 476 companies in 2024 to 458 in 2025 (a 4% decline). For large corporations, sustainability disclosure has become institutionalized, driven by investor expectations, global regulatory exposure, and integration with enterprise risk management and strategy.
- The pullback is concentrated among smaller and mid-cap companies. The larger decline across the Russell 30″
These numbers indicate that sustainability reporting isn’t quite in the dire straits it appeared last year. At the same time, a 17% drop is still large. Time will tell if these numbers level out or if we’ll see continued drops into 2026.
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