{"id":2039,"date":"2013-11-18T15:21:59","date_gmt":"2013-11-18T15:21:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=2039"},"modified":"2013-12-03T15:43:55","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T15:43:55","slug":"most-big-companies-dont-care-about-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/most-big-companies-dont-care-about-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"Most big companies don&#8217;t care about sustainability."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Only 3% of the world&#8217;s largest companies report on\u00a0 the first generation of sustainability indicators according to <a href=\"http:\/\/static.corporateknights.com\/StockExchangeReport2013.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Corporate Knights report on Trends in Sustainability Disclosure<\/a>. The seven indicators are: employee turnover, energy, greenhouse gases (GHGs), lost-time injury rate, payroll, waste and water.\u00a0 Sadly, but unsurprisingly, Corporate Knights recommends mandatory disclosure because voluntary disclosure is plainly not revealing the required data.<\/p>\n<p>EIRIS coincidentally <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eiris.org\/media\/press-release\/eiris-interviews-reveal-stock-exchanges-leadership-sustainability-issues\/\" target=\"_blank\">reported on research done with eleven stock exchanges which have expressed their desire to improve sustainability reporting<\/a>.\u00a0 The reasons for supporting sustainability disclosure are all worthy, economically as well as morally:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0 \u0007to improve the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) performance of companies listed on their exchanges<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u0007 to encourage and to help investors engage with companies on sustainability issues<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u0007 to identify themselves in the marketplace as committed to sustainability<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0 \u0007to draw on the latest research to support the link between long-term financial performance and ESG issues.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More regulation always brings imperfections but it becomes necessary when behaviour doesn&#8217;t adapt voluntarily.\u00a0 For that to happen, investors must demand disclosure from the companies they own.\u00a0 That means that <strong>asset managers and other fiduciaries must ask for ESG data<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It is long past time for big listed companies to own up about their behaviour, about the amount they pollute the planet and society.\u00a0 It will be revealing when they do, as this graphic from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/bsustainable\/\" target=\"_blank\">Bloomberg&#8217;s<\/a> sustainability report indicates (eg 1.9 tonnes of travel emissions per employee!).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/astraea.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/bloomberg2012indicators.png\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2040\" alt=\"bloomberg2012indicators\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/astraea.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/bloomberg2012indicators.png?resize=848%2C353\" width=\"848\" height=\"353\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/bloomberg2012indicators.png?w=848&amp;ssl=1 848w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/bloomberg2012indicators.png?resize=300%2C124&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 848px) 100vw, 848px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>SocialFunds.com: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.socialfunds.com\/news\/article.cgi\/article3881.html\" target=\"_blank\">Sustainable Stock Exchanges can Influence Corporate ESG Performance<strong> <\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>EIRIS: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eiris.org\/media\/press-release\/eiris-interviews-reveal-stock-exchanges-leadership-sustainability-issues\/\" target=\"_blank\">EIRIS interviews reveal stock exchanges\u2019 leadership on sustainability issues<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.sseinitiative.org\/publications\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative reports<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Only 3% of the world&#8217;s largest companies report on\u00a0 the first generation of sustainability indicators according to Corporate Knights report on Trends in Sustainability Disclosure. The seven indicators are: employee turnover, energy, greenhouse gases (GHGs), lost-time injury rate, payroll, waste and water.\u00a0 Sadly, but unsurprisingly, Corporate Knights recommends mandatory disclosure because voluntary disclosure is plainly &hellip;<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/most-big-companies-dont-care-about-sustainability\/\" class=\"more-link pen_button pen_element_default pen_icon_arrow_double\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Most big companies don&#8217;t care about sustainability.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-markets","category-responsible-investing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-wT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2039"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2043,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2039\/revisions\/2043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}