According to the Governance & Accountability Institute (G&A), 81% of S&P 500 Index companies published a sustainability or corporate responsibility report in 2015. The S&P Index is one of the most widely-followed barometers of the U.S. economy and conditions for large-cap public companies in the capital markets.

The G&A Institute has analyzed the index company components’ sustainability reporting activities for the past five years. There has been a rapid and significant uptake in corporate sustainability reporting among the 500 companies. Over the years, sustainability reporting rose from just 20% of the companies reporting in 2011 to 81% in 2015. According to the G&A Institute, this increased corporate reporting underscores the importance of setting strategies, measuring and managing environmental, social, and governance issues in response to growing stakeholder and shareholder expectations, and in some cases, demands for such reporting from major customers.

The growth in sustainability reporting tracked by the G&A Institute is as follows:

  • In 2011, just under 20% of S&P 500 companies had reported;
  • In 2012, 53% (for the first time a majority) of S&P 500 companies were reporting;
  • By 2013, 72% were reporting—that is 7-out-of-10 of all companies in the popular benchmark; and
  • In 2014, 75% of the S&P 500 were publishing reports.

The G&A Institute has joined forces with the Trust Across America/Trust Around the World (TAA/TAW) program to explore potential relationships of the trustworthiness of companies that do and do not report. The companies have charted and are analyzing the 99 index companies in 2015 that did not report on their sustainability opportunities, risks, strategies, actions, programs and achievements. More information about the work of the G&A Institute and this new initiative with TAA/TAW is available at http://www.ga-institute.com/.

While not yet mandatory in the U.S., sustainability and corporate social responsibility reporting is a growing trend and becoming somewhat of an expectation among the largest public and private companies. It appears that the new focus and scrutiny will not be on the companies reporting but those that have decided not to do so.