Forty of the Fortune 50 companies now showcase reports on their sustainability performance, but many focus more on promoting their green credentials than on providing real accountability to the public, according to a new study by the PR measurement firm KDPaine & Partners. You can download the full report here (PDF).
The good news is that most of the largest companies have begun to take seriously the need to report on their own environmental impact, and most of them present information on their environmental goals and policies, energy consumption, waste disposal and recycling, and air emissions. Most also highlight the environmental awards they have won. The numbers are up significantly from even a few years ago.
On the other hand, far fewer of the companies provide real context for their reporting to help readers understand how well the companies are actually doing, and only a minority involve third party stakeholders in the reporting process, which would tend to add credibility to their efforts. As the study authors noted, "environmental sustainability reporting is still being used as a public relations tool to position companies favorably on environmental issues, rather than to hold companies accountable to stakeholders for environmental performance."
For those interested in improving their own environmental reporting, the report provides a useful Environmental Reporting Transparency Scorecard which outlines a wide array of factors used in ranking the Fortune 50. (Many more useful resources are available from the Global Reporting Initiative, the leading international network for corporate sustainability reporting.)
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