Issues related to sustainability represent the next frontier in corporate reporting. Broadly defined, sustainability reporting includes a company’s impacts, risks and opportunities from an environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) perspective. In recent years, an increased focus on sustainability-related issues has caused even the most mainstream investors to question whether companies are effectively addressing potential risks to their bottom lines as a result of their operational impact to the environment and society.
As more and more investors see the benefit to sustainability reporting, it should come as little surprise that companies are responding, as more companies than ever are communicating their progress on sustainability-related initiatives through sustainability reports. The Governance & Accountability Institute’s 2012 Corporate ESG/ Sustainability/Responsibility Report found that more than half of the companies in the S&P 500 and the Fortune 500 produce reports on their sustainability strategies, initiatives, programs and performance. This is quite a jump from 2011, when only 19% of S&P 500 companies and 20% of Fortune 500 companies reported this information.
Sustainability Reporting: A Glass Lewis Issue Report discusses the issue of sustainability reporting in the context of shareholder engagement, beginning with a discussion of current reporting regulation and guidelines and how sustainability reporting has evolved in recent years. Our report then reviews related academic research and outlines the various organizations that have led the charge by creating sustainability reporting frameworks. Finally, Glass Lewis discusses the shareholder proposals put forth on this topic in the past several years and our analysis of these proposals. The goal of this report is provide detailed information about sustainability reporting so that shareholders can make more informed proxy voting decisions.
Clients of Glass Lewis can access the report one of two ways: Those with access to GlassLewis.net, first log in using your GlassLewis.net credentials, and then download Sustainability Reporting: A Glass Lewis Issue Report here, or for those who exclusively use our ViewPoint voting platform, please email your Client Services Manager to request the reports. Non clients can request the report through GlassLewis.com.