KPMG released its report on Sustainability Reporting 2020. This is the 11th edition of the KPMG’s Survey of Sustainability Reporting since the first edition was published in 1993.
This year, KPMG professionals reviewed sustainability reporting from 5,200 companies in 52 countries and jurisdictions, making this the most extensive survey in the series to date.
The survey provides a detailed look at global trends in sustainability reporting and offers insights for business leaders, company boards and sustainability professionals. Its aim is to support those who have a responsibility for assessing and preparing their own organization’s sustainability reporting.
One interesting chapter of the survey lists the countries based on the ratio of the largest companies that prepare sustainability reports. The countries are divided in 3 categories based on the reporting rates.
About one-quarter (14) of the 52 countries and jurisdictions covered by KPMG’s 2020 survey, have a sustainability reporting rate higher than 90 percent. The European countries represented in this category are Sweden, Spain, France, UK and Germany.
In the next category we can find countries where corporate sustainability reporting rate is between 77% and 90%, which is still higher than the global average. This category includes 18 countries and among them 2 from Central Europe, namely Hungary (83%) and Poland (77%).
The third category is for the countries with a reporting rate below 77% which is the global average value. The countries from the region in this category are Slovakia, Czech Republic, Austria and Romania.
The reporting survey discussed not only the current reporting practices of companies, sectors and countries but also highlights interesting and relevant reporting trends some of which might help us to understand how reporting will look like in the future. Some of these highlights are the following:
- GRI remains the most commonly used reporting standard or framework, used by around two-thirds of N100 reporters and around three-quarters of G250. When it comes to other guidelines and standards, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) framework and International Standards Organization (ISO) standards are the most commonly used for sustainability reporting.
- The number of companies that acknowledge the risk of climate change in their financial reporting has increased significantly since KPMG’s last survey in 2017. Among the G250 over half the group (56 percent) now acknowledging climate risk in their financial reporting.
- At the same time TCFD recommendations for climate-related financial disclosures are starting to take hold. Almost one in five N100 companies (18 percent) states that it reports in line with the recommendations
For further insight and detailed information about corporate sustainability reporting in 2020 visit the site below and read KPMG’s survey.
