Corporate Sustainability Leadership in America

New evidence has emerged indicating that while we are seeing some corporate leadership in America, there is still a lot of work to be done to increase the inculcation of sustainability practices and performances. Widespread corporate action is lacking with only around a quarter of the 600 largest US publicly traded companies showing true sustainability leadership. Specifically corporations are lacking in governance, stakeholder engagement, disclosure and performance,

These are the findings of a Ceres analysis conducted by Sustainalytics titled “The Road to 2020: Corporate Progress on the Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability.” The report is subtitled “A Strategic Vision and Practical Framework for Sustainable Corporations in the 21st Century Economy.”

The Ceres report singled out Alcoa, Xcel and Intel as leaders and Baxter and Ford earned top marks for stakeholder engagement. However 50 percent of the companies assessed disclose no efforts on stakeholder engagement.

Half of the companies assessed are publishing sustainability reports with just under one third employing the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. While just under half are making progress on emissions reductions and a third have specific targets for emissions reductions.

As far as supply chains are concerned Nike and Hewlett Packard were identified as among the leaders. A total of 43 percent have a supplier code in place and a quarter of companies assessed disclose supply chain monitoring and performance information.

To see the Ceres report click here.

© 2013, Richard Matthews. All rights reserved.

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