SustainabilityHQ.com Weekly Highlights June 4, 2014

FLASH REPORT: It’s Official – 72% of the S&P 500® Companies Are Publishing Sustainability Reports

We all know the S&P 500 Index companies – Allstate, AEP, Avon, Bank of America, Eastman Chemical, Marriott International, McDonald’s, Oracle, Owens-Illinois, Staples, Verizon Communications, Visa, Xerox  -- on and on, the great names in American business. The Index is compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices, a  part of McGraw-Hill Financial

S&P 500 represents the best single barometer of the large-cap companies and the US economy.  More than US$5 trillion is benchmarked to this Index – more than 80% of the US equities market.  So – when we see important trends clearly emerge related to the 500, we sit up and pay attention. 

Here’s a flash report from the G&A Institute team about the S&P 500 companies:  In 2013, 72% of the companies in the Index published a sustainability / corporate responsibility report.  This is a dramatic increase – in 2011, just under 20% of companies had reported.  The following year (2012) more than half of the companies published a report.

The analysis of the S&P 500 universe sustainability disclosure and reporting activities was conducted by a team of talented interns supervised by G&A EVP Louis Coppola. He noted:  “We are seeing clear indications over the past three years that senior management understands the importance of adopting and implementing strategies that reflect the rising interest of investors and stakeholders in corporate sustainability.”

Read more in the flash report from G&A Institute – our Top Story for this week’s newsletter.

Top Story of the Week

FLASH REPORT: Seventy-Two Percent (72%) of the S&P Index Published Corporate Sustainability Reports in 2013 — Dramatically Up from 52% in 2012 & Just About 20% in 2011
(Monday - June 02, 2014)
Source: Governance & Accountability Institute  — In an analysis just completed by the Governance & Accountability Institute research team, seventy two percent (72%) of the companies included in The S&P 500 Index® were found to have published a…

This is just a sample of some of the articles from this weeks SustainabilityHQ Highlights.  You can view the full Highlights by using the following links. Sustainability | ESG, Highlights for the Week of June 4, 2014