KPMG: 79 percent of leading large companies prepare a sustainability report

(Photo: Pixabay)

The research is published every two years, this year the reports of 5,800 companies from 58 countries were evaluated by experts. According to Friday’s summary of the auditing and consulting firm, previously only the financial results showed the success of a company, but today it is also important how they handle social and environmental problems, how sustainable their operations and products are. Companies are increasingly expected to account for all of this and prepare their sustainability reports.

71 percent of national large companies and 80 percent of the global top 250 companies set targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions

Most of the companies also understood that they cannot rely solely on compensating emissions with voluntary quota purchases, they must also reduce their own emissions. At the same time, only 64 percent of the 250 large global companies officially admit that climate change poses a threat to them, and less than half of them see the reduction of biodiversity as a source of danger. Companies increasingly recognize the connection between climate change and social inequality, but less than half of the evaluated reports touched on social issues such as diversity, inclusion, equality, labor issues or employee well-being. Less than 50 percent of companies disclosed their corporate governance risks and results, such as bribery, corruption, anti-competitive behavior or political influence. Only about a third of national large companies have a designated manager dealing with sustainability, and less than a quarter of them have sustainability performance indicators related to executive compensation.

At the same time, the frequency of reporting by Hungarian companies corresponds to global trends and can be said to be average in the Central and Eastern European region – KPMG indicated. Most of the Hungarian reporting companies, 78 percent, do not prepare their own individual sustainability report, but provide data for the sustainability report published by the foreign parent company. According to the announcement, 10 percent of the companies recognized that by publishing the sustainability report at the local level, the company can provide more relevant information and inform stakeholders about its sustainability efforts in a more efficient way.

MTI