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8.SustainabilityPractices2018Edition_TrendsinCorporateSustainabilityReportinginNorthAmericaEuropeandAsia-Pacific.pdf
Sustainability Practices 2018 Edition
In partnership with
TRENDS IN CORPORATE SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING IN NORTH AMERICA, EUROPE, AND ASIA-PACIFIC
© 2018 The Conference Board, Inc. All rights reserved. ® The Conference Board and the torch logo are registered trademarks of The Conference Board, Inc.
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THE RUTGERS CENTER FOR CORPORATE LAW AND GOVERNANCE is a project of the Rutgers University School of Law, located in Camden and Newark, New Jersey. The Center is an interdisciplinary forum for research, analysis, and discussion of current issues in corporate law and governance. The Center serves as a resource for students, faculty, alumni, and the business and nonprofit communities. Its objectives are to identify and promote best corporate law and governance practices and law reform, and to build bridges between Rutgers Law School, the business and nonprofit communities, government officials, and other Rutgers University units.
For more information, visit
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The Conference Board Sustainability Center The vision of the Center is to drive the integration of sustainability, enabling companies to create value and positive impact. We support member companies to pursue a growth strategy that creates long-term value by balancing opportunities and risks related to the economic, environmental, and social impacts. The Center offers research, publications, peer learning, and other tools to help The Conference Board members navigate this complex topic.
For additional information, please visit:
www.conferenceboard.org/sustainability
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Sustainability Practices 2018 Edition
RESEARCH REPORT 1680-18
by Thomas Singer, Anuj Saush, and Anke Schrader
CONTENTS
4 Executive Summary
7 About This New Edition
8 Global Trends
FINDINGS BY REGION:
12 North America
16 Europe
21 Asia-Pacific
27 Methodology
29 About the Authors/Acknowledgments
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Executive Summary
Corporate sustainability reporting—the disclosure of the economic, environmental, and social impacts of a company—has evolved tremendously over the last two decades, growing from a niche practice to one increasingly expected of companies. The main- streaming of sustainability reporting has been driven, in part, by increased pressure from shareholders and other stakeholders who see value in understanding how a company manages its nonfinancial impacts. This message was made clear by BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink in his 2018 letter to company CEOs. Reporting is also being helped along by pointed regulations in various regions. Whether the combination of regulatory requirements and shareholder pressure will improve actual sustainability performance, not just compliance, remains to be seen.
Sustainability reporting is still not a uniform practice across the globe and remains sporadic in countries where nonfinancial reporting regulation and stakeholder pressures are absent Even in Europe, where nonfinancial reporting has had a longer history compared to other regions, there are significant differences in levels of transparency across countries. For example, there is as wide a gap in the levels of disclosure between companies in the United Kingdom and Poland, as there is between companies in Japan and Pakistan. The lack of comparable nonfinancial reporting regulations across jurisdictions has in part made sustainability reporting a globally uneven practice. In a few countries, mandatory nonfinancial reporting requirements have led to significant increases in disclosure rates. In the absence of mandated disclosure, in some countries industry-led initiatives and stakeholder pressure have also been major drivers of disclosure. But sustainability reporting rates are conspicuously low in countries where stakeholder pressures and regulation are both largely absent.
Mandatory and voluntary sustainability reporting instruments will continue to shape reporting practices, with an increased focus on materiality Some mandatory reporting instruments are being introduced at a regional level (e.g., the EU Directive on nonfinancial reporting), others at the national level (e.g., gender pay gap reporting in the UK), and some are market driven (e.g., Singapore Exchange Sustainability Reporting Guide, California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) petition to require public companies to disclose environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects). Some companies disclose more than they are required to, spurred in large part by pressure from investors and a recognition that transparency can help strengthen relationships with stakeholders, such as employees, customers, and suppliers. Voluntary reporting frameworks, such as the GRI Standards, play an important role in helping companies navigate nonfinancial disclosure.
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These voluntary reporting instruments are also evolving to encourage companies to focus their reporting on material issues—those that companies and their stakeholders deem most important or relevant to their business. Materiality is a key focus, for example, of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which encourages firms to align climate-related risk disclosures with investors’ needs. While a minority of companies currently disclose the material risks that climate change poses to their business, for example, increased pressure from investors and regulators is likely to change that.
Nonfinancial disclosure alone does not necessarily translate into better sustainability performance as companies tick the boxes without tipping the scales This finding raises the fundamental question of why companies report and whether regulations are translating into improvements in sustainability performance. For example, 99 percent of sample companies in Japan report the percentage of women on the board, yet women account for only 3 percent of directors among Japanese companies. Similarly, 70 percent of companies in Taiwan report board diversity figures, yet women account for a meager 7 percent of directors. By contrast, just under half of companies in France report the share of women on their boards, and women hold a median of 40 percent of board seats among these companies. Not all sustainability reporting requirements are effective at driving performance improvements. Existing reporting requirements are more effective when they include due diligence mechanisms to achieve not only greater disclosure but also performance improvements. Lastly, companies can benefit much more by embracing not only the letter but the spirit of the reporting instruments, mandatory or voluntary, which ultimately are intended to drive improvements in sustainability performance.
How does your company’s sustainability reporting compare with others in your industry? The 2018 edition of our analysis of trends in corporate sustainability reporting uncovers some of the gaps in nonfinancial disclosure, identifies areas where progress has been made, and highlights key issues that companies should keep on their radars. This report is complemented by a Sustainability Practices Dashboard that provides a comprehensive database and online benchmarking tool.
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Highest average disclosure rate
Lowest average disclosure rate
Disclosure rates for select key practices
Source: The Conference Board / Bloomberg 2018.
Percentage of companies reporting on each practice, by country (top 5)
CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY
81
62
4747
39
37
GHG EMISSIONS
78
49
48
34
29
WOMEN IN MANAGEMENT
UK
Australia
Taiwan
US
Sweden
69
57
14
14
14
GENDER PAY GAP BREAKOUT
Taiwan
Italy
Australia
Spain
Canada
15
10
10
6
5
EXTERNAL ESG ASSURANCE
Taiwan
Japan
France
UK
US
42
42
35
32
28
USE OF GRI GUIDELINES
Japan
Taiwan
US
China
Germany
64
57
35
32
28
Countries where companies have the highest and lowest sustainability disclosure rates, based on average disclosure across 91 sustainability practices
SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING
is not a uniform practice across the globe
US
26% Japan
31% France
18% UK
26% Taiwan
26%
Poland
2% Pakistan
1% Thailand
5% Malaysia
4% Indonesia
3%
Japan
Taiwan
US
UK
France
UK
US
Taiwan
France
Japan
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About This New Edition Sustainability Practices is part of The Conference Board Corporate Intelligence portfolio of benchmarking data and analysis. This edition of the report introduces
country-level analysis and relies on a more expansive sample pool than in previous years to provide a comprehensive overview of global sustainability practices. (We have included, however, some basic comparisons with the sample size used in previous years; see “Key highlights from the S&P Global 1200 sample,” page 11.) In total, sustainability disclosure data on 91 environmental and social practices are analyzed for 5,164 companies across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific.
For more on how we collected this edition’s data and detailed information on using the accom- panying Dashboard, please see “Methodology” and “Using the Dashboard,” pages 27–28.
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Global Trends This report, the 2018 edition of the analysis of trends in corporate sustainability reporting by The Conference Board, uncovers some of the gaps in nonfinancial disclosure, identifies areas where progress has been made, and highlights key issues that companies should keep on their radars. The analysis is drawn from data on sustainability disclosure and performance of companies in 23 countries, spanning Asia-Pacific, Europe, and North America. In all, data on 90+ environmental and social practices for more than 5,000 companies are analyzed to reveal how companies are responding to the increased pressure to disclose their nonfinancial impacts.
The following are the key trends across regions, examining some of the most significant environmental and social issues affecting companies:
Driven by mandatory reporting requirements, companies in Japan have the highest overall sustainability disclosure rate Across the 91 practices examined in the research, companies in Japan have an average disclosure rate of 31 percent. Mandatory environmental reporting requirements have been a clear driver of disclosure in Japan. Since 2006, for example, certain companies in Japan have been required to disclose greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The next three countries with the highest disclosure rates—United Kingdom, United States, and Taiwan—all shared an average disclosure rate of 26 percent.
Nine countries had average disclosure rates in the single digits. Transparency regarding sustainability practices is particularly low among companies in Malaysia, Indonesia, Poland, and Pakistan, where average disclosure rates are below 5 percent.
Larger companies, more subject to stakeholder scrutiny, tend to disclose more widely in all regions Across regions and countries, sustainability disclosure rates generally increase with company size. The largest companies by revenue consistently have higher disclosure rates than companies in lower revenue groups, and in some cases the differences are quite significant. Companies in the largest revenue group (with annual revenues of $5 billion or more) have an average disclosure rate of 29 percent across all the practices examined, double the average disclosure rate of companies in the next-highest revenue group. Large companies are generally more prone to stakeholder scrutiny. In addition, many of the nonfinancial reporting requirements introduced in recent years, including those by stock exchanges, often apply primarily to larger companies.
Globally, 16 percent of companies opt for external assurance, a figure that is likely to increase as stakeholders put greater demand on the quality and reliability of nonfinancial data The use of external assurance is most prevalent among companies in Japan and Taiwan, where 42 percent of companies obtain some assurance of their nonfinancial data.
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Overall, this practice is most common among larger companies. More than two-fifths of companies in the largest revenue group have opted for external assurance of their sustainability reports, compared to 17 percent of companies in the next largest revenue group, and virtually no companies in the smallest revenue group. This finding is likely due in part to the extra cost and resources required to conduct external assurance and verification of nonfinancial data. Recent academic research, however, suggests the benefits of assurance can outweigh the costs associated with assurance fees. A study found that sustainability assurance can lead to reduced cost of capital for companies, and this benefit surpassed the assurance costs for more than half of examined companies.1
Recognizing potential climate-related business impacts, 1 in 4 companies globally reports having a climate change strategy This figure is highest in Japan, where 81 percent of companies have such a strategy, followed by companies in Taiwan (62 percent), the US (47 percent), the UK (39 percent), France (37 percent), and China (37 percent).
Across the global sample, 21 percent of companies report their GHG emissions. However, more than three-quarters (78 percent) of companies in the UK report GHG emissions, driven largely by the mandatory GHG reporting requirements introduced by the Climate Change Act 2008. The next-highest levels of emissions disclosure were among companies in the US (49 percent) and Taiwan (48 percent).
The business community has a significant role to play in mitigating the effects of climate change. These effects are not trivial: the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that, if GHG emissions continue at the current rate, damages from climate change could reach $54 trillion by as early as 2040. The severity of damages is now greater—and likely to occur earlier—than previously estimated.2
Companies in some of the countries with the greatest water risks have some of the lowest disclosure of water use For countries expected to experience high levels of water stress in the future, such as India, Pakistan, and Spain, the low levels of disclosure related to water consumption could be concerning. In Spain, 16 percent and in India, 8 percent of companies report total water consumption. In Pakistan, a mere 1 percent of companies report this data. Not all sectors and companies are equally exposed to water risks, and in cases where water is not a material issue there is little reason to expect companies to report data on their water usage. However, it is unlikely that in Pakistan, for example, water is not a material risk for 99 percent of companies.
Globally, women fill less than 1 in 5 board seats, prompting efforts in several countries to foster greater female representation in business leadership Across regions, just under half of companies report data on the gender makeup of their boards. Among these companies, the median percentage of women on boards is only 17 percent. The highest median percentage of women on boards is among companies in Europe (25 percent), followed by North America (20 percent). Women’s representation on company boards is lowest among companies in Asia-Pacific, where women account for only 9 percent of director positions.
1 Ryan J. Casey and Jonathan H. Grenier, “Save Money by Having Your Sustainability Report Assured,” Journal of Accountancy, April 11, 2018.
2 Coral Davenport, “Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040,” New York Times, October 7, 2018.
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The analysis by country reveals companies in France have the highest median share of women directors (40 percent), followed by Italy (33 percent), and Belgium (30 percent). At the opposite end of the spectrum, the median percentage of women on company boards was reported to be nil among companies in Russia, Mexico, Indonesia, Pakistan, and South Korea.
By sector, women’s representation on company boards is highest among health care companies, where women represent a median of 22 percent of board seats. At the opposite end of the spectrum, on average, only 11 percent of directors are women at information technology companies.
The low level of gender diversity on company boards has triggered efforts in several countries to foster female representation on boards. Norway, for example, in 2003 became the first country to pass a quota mandate for women’s representation on corporate boards. Since then, several European countries have followed suit, including Spain, Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany. In the US, a new California law will require companies “whose principal executive offices” are in California to have at least one woman on their boards by the end of 2019. Large asset managers, including BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard, are also announcing stewardship programs that prioritize board diversity, and are actively supporting shareholder proposals aimed at increasing board diversity.3
3 Sarah Krouse, “BlackRock: Companies Should Have at Least Two Female Directors,” Wall Street Journal, February 2, 2018.
Mandatory gender quotas (Norway, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy)
Voluntary gender quotas (Spain, UK)
“Comply or Explain” (regulated mandatory reporting of diversity) (Netherlands, Canada)
Regulated voluntary reporting of diversity (US)
Industry approaches: “Name & Shame” or “Name & Praise”
Individual firm efforts
Voluntary & fluid
Regulated & fixed
Source: The Effect of Gender Diversity on Board Decision-making, The Conference Board, January 2017, p. 3.
Approaches to corporate diversity Figure 1
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Key highlights from the S&P Global 1200 sample
This year’s changes to the methodology of Sustainability Practices limit the ability to examine trends over time because the sample of companies is different from that of previous editions. To enable some comparisons over time, the following are key highlights based on an analysis of a sample comprised of S&P Global 1200 companies used in previous editions of this report:
• Five practices crossed the 50 percent disclosure mark for the first time: child labor policy (58 percent), percentage of women in the workforce (58 percent), energy consumption (57 percent), use of GRI guidelines (57 percent), and total GHG emissions (55 percent).
• The biggest increases in disclosure compared to last year were among the following practices: business ethics policies (+22 percentage points), anti-bribery policies (+21 points), equal opportunity policies (+20 points), and health and safety policies (+20 points).
• The use of external assurance in sustainability reports continues to increase, from 38 percent of companies last year to 44 percent this year. In 2013, only 25 percent of companies included external assurance statements in their sustainability reports.
• There is a notable increase in the number of companies mentioning climate change risks in their annual filings, from 16 percent last year to 25 percent this year. In 2013, only 9 percent of companies mentioned climate risks in their annual filings.
• The number of companies disclosing the percentage of women in management positions has remained stubbornly flat over the last five years. This year, 29 percent of companies disclosed this information, compared to 28 percent last year—the same figure from 2013. The median percentage of women in management positions crept up to 24 percent this year, from 23 percent last year and 22 percent in 2013.
• Compared to last year, the median number of women on company boards increased by 1 percentage point to 21 percent.
• The median CO 2 emissions reported by companies increased by 18 percent
compared to last year.
Alignment of disclosure with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Although we did not specifically assess progress or reporting against SDGs in this report, we mapped the 17 SDGs to the 91 environmental and social practices analyzed in this report to ascertain those SDGs where companies currently have the highest disclosure rate. Based on this analysis, most companies are reporting sustainability data that fall under the following five SDGs:
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North America Overall, US companies lead in disclosure compared to companies in Canada and Mexico Across the 91 practices, the average disclosure rate for US companies is 26 percent, compared to 16 percent for Canadian companies and 10 percent for Mexican companies. Among US companies there are 13 practices with disclosure rates above 50 percent, and among Canadian companies the same is true for five practices. Among Mexican companies, no practice has a disclosure rate above 35 percent. The gap becomes particularly pronounced when examining individual practices. For example, the practice with the highest disclosure rate among Mexican companies is the percentage of women on the board, with 35 percent of companies disclosing this information. By comparison, 95 percent of US companies and 73 percent of Canadian companies report this information.
While less than 1 in 5 companies disclose the risks that climate change poses to their business, increased pressure from investors is likely to improve climate-related disclosure One-third of companies in North America report having a climate change strategy. In line with this finding, a similar percentage of companies in this region disclose their total GHG emissions. However, only 19 percent of companies go a step further and disclose the specific risks that climate change poses to their business.
Climate-related disclosure is far more prominent among US companies compared to peers in Canada and Mexico. For example, 49 percent of US companies disclose their GHG emissions, compared to 28 percent of Canadian companies, and only 16 percent of Mexican companies. Similarly, 36 percent of US companies disclose climate-related risks to the business in their annual reports, compared to 12 percent of Canadian companies. This type of disclosure is not present among Mexican companies in the sample.
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
Average disclosure rate, all practices (North America)
Figure 2
Canada
16
Mexico
10
United States
26%
Mexico
Climate-related disclosure, by country (North America)
Figure 3
Risks of climate-change discussed in annual filings
Total GHG emissions
Canada
12
28
0
16
United States
36%
49
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The industry-led Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) released its recommendations for disclosure of climate-related financial risks in June 2017. These recommendations aim to encourage businesses to integrate discussion of their strategies for dealing with climate change impacts into their financial filings and annual reports. As evidenced by data in this report, climate-related disclosures remain relatively weak, but the breadth and quality of these disclosures are likely to improve as more companies adopt the TCFD recommendations. In particular, as noted in the TCFD’s status report released in September 2018, one key area for improvement is for disclosures to contain decision-useful climate-related information.4
Initiatives such as the TCFD are emerging out of a growing recognition from investors and other stakeholders that climate change has the potential to pose material risks for businesses, and that companies should disclose the presence of these risks as well as steps to prevent and/or mitigate these risks. For example, in October 2018, a group of investors representing more than $5 trillion in assets under management, including the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the New York State Comptroller, petitioned the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to develop a comprehensive framework requiring public companies to disclose ESG aspects of their operations.5 Also in October, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) approved the first set of industry-specific standards, covering financially material issues for 77 industries.
There is also evidence that state regulators in the US are recognizing the financial risks associated with climate change. In 2018, for example, a California bill passed requiring the two largest pension funds in the US, CalPERS and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), to disclose the exposure of all funds to climate- related financial risks.6
Shareholders also continue to be active on the issue of climate risks. This year, for example, shareholder proposals requesting that companies conduct climate risk analyses passed at Anadarko Petroleum and at Kinder Morgan. Similar proposals received support of more than 40 percent of votes cast at Noble Energy and Old Republic. On a related topic, shareholder proposals passed at Genesee & Wyoming and at Middleby Corporation requesting the companies report on GHG management strategies.
Despite increased global attention on water stress, fewer than 1 in 4 companies disclose their water consumption The link between climate change and water-related risks is strong. A recent research paper estimates that due to changes in the climate, “approximately two-thirds of the world population will experience progressively longer and more frequent droughts…” and “This acceleration in drought duration could lead to more frequent mega-droughts…in the US Southwest the risk of a decade-scale mega-drought in the coming century is at least 80% and could be higher than 90% in certain areas.”7
4 Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures: Status Report, September 2018, p. iii.
5 “Request for Rulemaking on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Disclosure,” US Securities and Exchange Commission, October 1, 2018.
6 See: California Senate Bill 964, September 25, 2018.
7 Gustavo Naumann et al., “Global Changes in Drought Conditions under Different Levels of Warming,” Geophysical Research Letters 45, 2018, p. 3293.
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For some businesses, droughts and increased water stress represent significant risks and can result in higher and volatile operational costs. The World Economic Forum, for instance, has listed water crises as a top-five global risk in terms of impact for the past seven years.8
Despite water crises being recognized year after year as a top risk, less than one-quarter of companies in North America report the total amount of water consumption. Not all sectors, however, are equally exposed to water risks. The consumer staples, energy, utilities, and materials sectors have some of the highest levels of exposure to water risks.9 Among these sectors, materials has the highest disclosure rate, with 37 percent of materials companies in North America disclosing their water consumption. The other sectors have notably lower disclosure rates, with one-quarter of consumer staples companies reporting total water consumption, 21 percent of energy companies, and only 16 percent of utilities. The low disclosure rate among utility companies is particularly notable given that this sector and the materials sector report the highest median levels of water consumption.
Utilities also report far higher volumes of waste water than companies in any other sector—about seven times the amount of the second-highest sector. While utilities is tied with materials for the sector with the highest disclosure rate for waste water (28 percent), this figure is low given the large volume of waste water reported by the utilities sector.
Disclosure of women in leadership positions is practically nonexistent among companies in Mexico, unlike their peers in Canada and the US Across North America, companies are far more likely to disclose the number of women on their boards than the number in management positions. Only 9 percent of companies report the percentage of women in management positions, all of them in the US (14 percent) or Canada (10 percent); companies in Mexico do not report on this metric at all. Among US companies, women account for a median of 28 percent of managers, slightly higher than the median value of 26 percent reported by Canadian companies.
About three-quarters of North American companies report the number of women on their company boards. Among these companies, the median share of women on company boards is 20 percent. While a full 95 percent of US companies report the percentage of women on their boards, women directors account for a median of only 21 percent of board members, very close to Canada’s median of 20 percent with a 73 percent disclosure rate. Just over one-third (35 percent) of Mexican companies report this information, revealing women account for only 2 percent of directors.
8 The Global Risks Report 2018, World Economic Forum, Figure IV.
9 Accelerating Action: CDP Global Water Report 2015, CDP, p. 11.
Percentage of women in management positions and on the board, by country (North America)
Figure 4
Women in management, median share
Women on the board, median share
Canada
26
20
Mexico
n/a 2
United States
28%
21
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
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The low level of gender diversity on company boards is causing some US states to take legal action. For example, earlier this year California passed a law requiring companies “whose principal executive offices” are in California to have at least one woman on their boards by the end of 2019. By the end of 2021, the minimum requirement increases to two women directors (for companies with five directors) or to three women directors (for companies with six or more directors).10
Few companies provide details on gender pay gap, but pressure to do so is growing New to this year’s analysis is disclosure of gender pay gap breakouts, practiced by only 4 percent of companies in North America. These companies report that, among senior management, women earn 83 percent of what their male counterparts earn.
In recent years, shareholders have been putting increasing pressure on companies to report information related to gender pay disparities. And in the US, while there is no federal requirement for companies to disclose information on gender pay gaps, there has been a recent flurry of regulatory activity at the state and local levels related to pay equity. For example, a number of states (California, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Oregon) and cities (San Francisco, New York, and Philadelphia) have banned the use of salary history in setting pay. At the federal level, a recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that wage differences between male and female employees based on “prior salary alone or in combination with other factors” violates the federal Equal Pay Act.11
US companies lead the way in linking incentive compensation to sustainability performance, a practice that shareholders continue to call for in recent proxy seasons Almost one-quarter (23 percent) of US companies—among them Verizon, American Electric Power, Suncor Energy, and Microsoft—link incentive compensation to sustainability performance, a practice that is more prevalent among US companies than those in any other country examined in this report. By comparison, 14 percent of Canadian companies and only 1 percent of Mexican companies link compensation to sustainability performance.
This topic has been prominent among US shareholders during the most recent proxy seasons. In 2018, for example, four shareholder resolutions were brought to a vote requesting company boards include sustainability as one of the performance measures for senior executives (no resolution passed, and average support was 11.8 percent of “for” votes as a percentage of votes cast).12 Five similar proposals were also brought to a vote in 2017, and four were voted on in 2016. Even when such resolutions don’t pass, they can be a bellwether for shareholder concerns.
10 See: California Senate Bill 826, October 1, 2018.
11 “Spotlight on the Gender Pay Gap in the US,” Baker McKenzie, 2018.
12 Analysis by The Conference Board based on FactSet data on Russell 3000 companies that held annual meetings between January 1, 2018 and September 28, 2018.
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
Incentive compensation linked to ESG performance, by country (North America)
Figure 5
Canada
14
Mexico
1
United States
23%
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Europe Europe has a longer history of nonfinancial reporting than North America and Asia-Pacific have. The European Union has played a significant role in standardizing nonfinancial reporting; its Directive, finalized in December 2014, is the first of its kind globally. Because 2018 is the first year companies are obliged to report their sustainability initiatives from the preceding year, it may be some time before we start to see the effects of the Directive.
Companies in the UK, France, and Germany top the European sustainability disclosure leadership board Across the 91 practices, the average disclosure rate is highest among companies in the UK (26 percent), France (18 percent), and Germany (14 percent), whereas companies in Poland have the lowest disclosure rate (2 percent).
A game changer for nonfinancial reporting
The EU Directive on disclosure of nonfinancial and diversity information requires large companies to publish regular reports on the social and environmental impacts of their activities.
Article 1 of the Directive states that companies concerned: “[…] shall include in the management report a nonfinancial statement containing information to the extent necessary for an understanding of the undertaking’s development, performance, position and impact of its activity, relating to, as a minimum, environmental, social and employee matters, respect for human rights, anti-corruption and bribery matters […].”
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
Average disclosure rate, all practices (Europe) Figure 6
PolandBelgiumRussiaItalySwedenSpainNetherlandsGermanyFranceUnited Kingdom
2
55
8 10
1111
14
18
26%
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The UK is among the countries with the highest levels of corporate sustainability disclosure (only companies in Japan report higher average disclosure across all practices examined in this report). Among UK companies, there are 19 practices with disclosure rates above 50 percent, compared with no practices with disclosure rates above 50 percent in any of the other European countries examined. For example, among companies in Belgium, Poland, and Russia, no practice has a disclosure rate above 17 percent.
Across countries, disclosure rates are typically highest for policy-related practices, such as the presence of a business ethics policy, health & safety policy, and equal opportunity policy. This finding is in line with the regulatory requirements, implying that companies are more likely to have a policy or a position statement on a specific issue if it is required by law.
Despite global commitments to address climate change risks, such as the Paris Agreement, few companies appear to be acting at a strategic level Across Europe, only 18 percent of companies report having a climate change strategy, and a meager 5 percent of companies discuss the risks associated with climate change in their annual filings.
Disclosure of GHG emissions data is slightly higher: 21 percent of companies across Europe disclose their total GHG emissions. Companies in the UK, however, are far ahead of their peers in terms of GHG disclosure. More than three-quarters (78 percent) of companies in the UK report on GHG emissions, the highest disclosure rate across the global sample. The high rate of disclosure among UK companies can be attributed to mandatory GHG reporting requirements introduced by the Climate Change Act 2008, which set a statutory emissions reduction target of at least 80 percent by 2050 compared to 1990 levels. But reporting across other countries in Europe remains sporadic. If we exclude the disclosure rates of companies in the UK (78 percent) and France (34 percent), the average GHG emissions reporting for the rest of Europe is only 11 percent.
Average disclosure rate, key policy areas (Europe) Figure 7
31%
Business ethics 29%
Anti- bribery 27%
Whistle- blowing
31%
Equal opportunity
26%
Human rights 24%
Social supply chain
32%
Health & safety
29%
Energy efficiency
25%
Waste reduction
22%
Environmental supply chain
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
Note: The percentages represent the disclosure rate for company policies (e.g., business ethics policy, equal opportunity policy).
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Regulations have played a key role in both the UK (Climate Change Act 2008) and France (Energy Transition for Green Growth Act 2015) to advance climate action and promote reporting of climate-related data. This provides a strong case for a regulation-driven approach to catalyze action against climate change.
Majority of companies have taken little action on waste to date, missing out on the circular economy opportunities A quarter of the companies across Europe report having a waste management policy, but only 11 percent report on the actual volume of waste recycled in their operations. Further, only 3 percent of companies disclose their raw material input, which is an important piece in the transition toward a “circular economy”—a shift from a traditional “take, make, and dispose” model to an approach that is restorative and regenerative. However, this is an area where higher rates of disclosure can be expected in the coming years, driven by recent regulatory initiatives in Europe. The EU Circular Economy Package,13 for example, seeks to harmonize the legislative framework on waste across Europe and facilitate measures to close the loop by tackling all phases in the life cycle of a product.
13 Adriana Neligan, “EU Circular Economy Package: A Challenging yet Important Impulse,” Director Notes 9, no. 3, The Conference Board, April 2018.
Waste and resource use disclosure, by country (Europe) Percent
Figure 8
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
PolandBelgiumRussiaSwedenItalyNetherlandsSpainGermanyFranceUK
Total waste
Waste recycled
Raw material consumption
Integrating climate factors into investments France is the first country to require asset owners and investment managers to disclose climate-related financial risks and report on how environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria are considered in their investment decisions. Article 173-VI of the Law on Energy Transition for Green Growth and its implementing decree sets three requirements: 1.) providing a general description of the investor’s ESG policy; 2.) disclosing the resources allocated to ESG analysis; and 3.) explaining the methodology and the results of the climate risk analysis.
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Policy makers expect initiatives such as the Circular Economy Package to trigger more companies to act on managing material resources and transitioning toward more circular approaches.
European companies have the highest representation of women on the board globally, driven by forward-looking policy initiatives The issue of boardroom diversity has gained significant attention in recent years.14 As has been the case with a few other issues (e.g., nonfinancial reporting, carbon reporting), regulations are driving greater gender representation on European company boards. In 2003, Norway became the first country to pass a quota mandate for women’s representation on corporate boards. Since then, several European countries have followed suit (Spain in 2007; Belgium, France, Italy, and the Netherlands in 2011; and Germany in 2016), albeit with different rules.
Reviewing the data on women’s representation on company boards in isolation shows that mandated gender quotas have increased the share of women on corporate boards but, somewhat paradoxically, have not increased the number of women in management- level positions. On average, gender representation at the board level is 8 percent higher in countries where there are mandatory or voluntary gender quotas. The difference is less than 1 percent if we consider countries with no gender quota requirement for board representation. This finding reinforces the need for companies to set challenging diversity targets at all levels and underlines the importance of having programs for developing the next generation of women leaders.
Increased awareness and regulatory intervention will accelerate closing the gender pay gap Efforts aimed at tackling the gender pay gap (the difference in average hourly pay for male and female workers) are getting renewed attention. The principles of equal pay for men and women for equal work or work of equal value have been part of the regulatory framework in Europe for several decades (Equal Pay Directive 1975, replaced by Recast Directive 2006). Further, most European countries also have supporting legislation committing to principles of equal pay. However, in practice, gender pay gap remains a significant issue. Research by the European Commission found a gender pay gap of 16.3 percent on average for the 28 EU member states in 2015.15
Only 3 percent of the companies across Europe disclose gender pay gap figures, and on average, these companies report a gender pay gap of 7 percent for senior management and across all employee groups.
One of the barriers to achieving equal pay provisions is the lack of available information about pay levels. This is an area where we are likely to see increased mandatory reporting requirements. The UK’s gender pay gap reporting regulation that came into effect in 2017 is just one example of this. The regulation requires organizations with over 250 employees to publish gender and bonus pay and the proportion of male and female employees in different pay bands.
14 Darren Rosenblum and Daria Roithmayr, “The Effect of Gender Diversity on Board Decision-making: Interviews with Board Members and Stakeholders,” Director Notes 8, no. 1, The Conference Board, January 2017.
15 European Commission, “The Enforcement of the Principle of Equal Pay for Equal Work or Work of Equal Value,” 2017.
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But it is important to acknowledge that reporting alone is not enough to address gender pay gap issues. The real gains will be made by understanding the reasons for the gap and introducing measures (e.g., supporting women’s rise to senior management roles, overcoming bias in pay negotiation and discrimination) that contribute toward achieving equality.
There is growing interest but limited action on integrating ESG issues into executive pay Across Europe, only 5 percent of companies report linking ESG issues to executive remuneration. This practice is most commonly reported among companies in the UK (19 percent), the Netherlands (12 percent), and France (11 percent). In the remaining European countries, only 2 percent of companies report linking executive compensation to sustainability performance. However, reporting of this practice is likely to become more prominent in the future as expectations evolve. For example, the 2018 UK Corporate Governance Code emphasizes that executive remuneration should support long-term company performance and value generation, thereby reinforcing the need to adopt a more holistic approach toward remuneration. Further, a study of the largest 40 French companies by market valuation found that inclusion of CSR criteria in senior manager pay has increased from 10 percent to 70 percent in less than 10 years.16
16 “English Summary of the Study on the Integration by Companies of CSR Criteria into Remuneration in France,” Observatoire de la responsabilité sociétale des entreprises (ORSE) and PwC France, March 2018.
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Asia-Pacific Overall, Japanese and Taiwanese companies clearly lead in regional sustainability disclosure, while companies from Pakistan have the lowest disclosure rates The degree of corporate sustainability disclosure varies dramatically across Asia-Pacific, and in some countries, disclosure remains virtually nonexistent. Across the 91 sustainability practices, the average disclosure rate for Japanese companies is 31 percent, followed closely by Taiwanese companies with a disclosure rate of 26 percent. These are followed by companies in Australia (17 percent), China (12 percent), South Korea (10 percent), and India (9 percent). Laggards in sustainability disclosure are Thailand (5 percent), Malaysia (4 percent), Indonesia (3 percent), and Pakistan (1 percent). Overall, more economically developed countries tend to have higher sustainability disclosure rates than less developed countries. However, there are a number of countries where disclosure practices are low given their relatively high per capita income—specifically, Malaysia, South Korea, and Australia.
Almost half of companies across Asia-Pacific disclose female board representation, but the actual representation numbers are sobering. Women in leadership positions is the most widely reported practice among all countries, sectors, and revenue groups across Asia-Pacific. Overall, nearly 50 percent of all companies in the sample disclose the number of women sitting on their boards. However, a look at the numbers confirms that despite the relatively high levels of disclosure, women are still largely absent from Asian boardrooms—on average, women hold just 9 percent of board seats. This finding is consistent with research conducted by MSCI, which shows that Asian companies are laggards when it comes to female representation in boardrooms—over a fifth of MSCI ACWI Index17 companies still have all-male boards, and companies in Asian countries (Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan) accounted for the majority of those in 2017.18
17 The MSCI ACWI Index is a global equity index comprised of 23 developed and 24 emerging markets.
18 Meggin Thwing Eastman, Women on Boards: 2017 Progress Report, MSCI, December 2017.
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
Average disclosure rate, all practices (Asia-Pacific) Figure 9
PakistanIndonesiaMalaysiaThailandIndiaSouth Korea
ChinaAustraliaTaiwanJapan
1 34
5
910 12
17
26
31%
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The absence of regulations in most Asian countries regarding female representation in boardrooms, as well as persistent cultural norms regarding gender equality, are among the root causes of low participation.
In Japan, for example, almost all companies disclose the gender breakdowns of their boards (99 percent of Japanese companies disclose these figures), and yet, the median share of women in Japanese boardrooms is just 3 percent. In contrast, in Malaysia, only 20 percent of companies disclose the share of women on boards, but women hold a median of more than 1 in 5 board seats. This figure may soon further increase as the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) released the new Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG) in 2017, specifying that SC would aim to increase women’s participation on boards of the top 100 companies on the Bursa Malaysia from the current 16.8 percent to 30 percent by 2020.19
Regulations, however, are often hard pressed to change cultural norms. In India, the revised Companies Act, approved in August 2013, made it mandatory for all listed companies and other large public limited companies to appoint at least one female director to their boards. Almost half of Indian companies disclose the number of women on their boards—however, among these companies, only about 1 in 10 board members is female. Given the fact that the average board size in India is nine directors, it seems clear that Indian companies tend to meet the minimum requirement but aren’t taking more proactive steps beyond the legal limit.
19 “SC Releases New Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance to Strengthen Corporate Culture,” Securities Commission Malaysia, April 26, 2017.
Disclosure rate and share of women on the board, by country (Asia-Pacific) Figure 10
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
99%
PakistanIndonesiaThailandMalaysiaSouth Korea
IndiaTaiwanChinaAustraliaJapan
3
80
21
72
8
70
7
49
11
29
0
20 22 17
8
16
0
7
0
Women on the board, disclosure rate
Women on the board, median share
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Japan is spearheading circular economy efforts in the region, but other countries are slow to follow suit Japan has been a pioneer in promoting circular economy principles since 1991, when Japanese legislation started to establish basic rules for waste management. Japan’s approach to the circular economy is focused on the implementation of 3R (reduce, reuse, and recycle).20 According to OECD data, 90 percent of waste generated in Japan is being recycled or incinerated with energy recovery, significantly higher than any other country in the region, and in fact, also significantly higher than the average in Europe or the US.21 Japan’s circular economy approach is also reflected in its disclosure rates on related practices (such as raw material consumption, volume of waste created, and volume of waste recycled), which are all significantly higher for Japanese companies compared to regional peers. In fact, 90 percent of companies in Japan report having a waste reduction policy, by far the highest percentage across all countries examined. China, by comparison, has thus far made very limited progress in this area. Despite specific regulations and policies in place to promote circular economy practices,22 less than 5 percent of Chinese companies disclose metrics related to waste and waste reduction, and only about one-third of companies report having a waste reduction policy.
The prevalence of climate change strategies is disconnected from the actual risk exposure of local operating environments Almost one-third of companies across the Asia-Pacific region report having a climate change strategy in place, primarily driven by companies in Japan (81 percent) and Taiwan (62 percent). Few companies in Thailand (9 percent), Malaysia (8 percent), Indonesia (6 percent), and Pakistan (1 percent) have implemented such strategies.
Only a negligible share of companies, however, is reporting actual climate change- related risks (3 percent) and opportunities (1 percent). Even in Japan and Taiwan, where a majority of companies have adopted climate change strategies, the share of companies disclosing the risks that climate change poses to their business is small.
What is more, there is no discernable connection between a country’s actual risk exposure to climate change and the likelihood of companies operating in those countries reporting having formulated climate change strategies. Based on Germanwatch’s Climate Risk Index country ranking,23 India is facing the highest climate change risks in the region, yet only 25 percent of Indian companies report having a climate change strategy. In contrast, Japan has a comparably low risk exposure to climate change, yet 81 percent of Japanese companies report having adopted climate change strategies. Government policies, rather than actual risk exposure of local operating environments, are likely the stronger driver to act on climate change. For example, Japan’s Environmental Reporting Guidelines specify disclosure of material environmental issues such as climate change.24
20 History and Current State of Waste Management in Japan, Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan, 2014.
21 “Municipal Waste,” in Environment at a Glance 2015: OECD Indicators, OECD, October 26, 2015, pp. 48-51.
22 China’s regulations on circular economy are rooted in the 1995’ Law on Waste Management. In 2008, China passed further legislation specifically focused on promoting circular economy principles (Law of the People’s Republic of China on Circular Economy Promotion). Ever since, circular economy has been a recurring theme in most fundamental environment and economic development plans in China.
23 David Eckstein, Vera Künzel, and Laura Schäfer, Global Climate Risk Index 2018, Germanwatch, November 2017.
24 “Environmental Reporting Guidelines,” Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan, April 2012.
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Japan’s Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Reporting System further requires entities emitting GHG emissions above a defined threshold to calculate their GHG emissions and report the results to the government.25
Despite the important role many Asian economies play in global supply chains, only 1 in 4 companies report having sustainable supply chain policies in place Across the Asia-Pacific region, 27 percent of companies disclose having social supply chain management practices in place, while 23 percent report having an environmental supply chain policy. Japanese and Taiwanese companies clearly lead in this area, while disclosure on sustainable supply chains is virtually nonexistent in Indonesia and Pakistan. The low disclosure rates for Indonesia are particularly worrying given the country’s importance as one of Asia’s largest manufacturing hubs.
Improvements in sustainable supply chain management are also often driven by collaborative sector initiatives, as evident in the information technology sector, which has high disclosure rates for both social and environmental supply chain management. The Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), formerly known as the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, was founded in 2004 by a small group of leading electronics companies seeking to create an industry-wide standard on social, environmental, and ethical issues in the electronics industry supply chain.
25 See: Takeshi Sekiya, “Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Reporting System,” Ministry of the Environment, Government of Japan, January 17, 2007. Industrial companies, commercial businesses, universities, freight carriers, etc. (as specified in the Law Promoting the Rational Use of Energy) that consume more than 1,500kl (crude oil equivalent) of energy per year or emit more than 3,000t-CO2 per year must report their GHG emission levels.
0
20
40
60
80
100
PakistanIndonesiaMalaysiaThailandSouth Korea
IndiaAustraliaChinaTaiwanJapan
Climate-related disclosure and climate risk exposure, by country (Asia-Pacific) Figure 11
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Climate change strategy disclosure rate (left scale)
Germanwatch’s Climate Risk Index (right scale)
Percent Climate Risk Index
Note: The Climate Risk Index (CRI) indicates quantifiable impacts of extreme weather events. The lower the CRI, the higher vulnerability due to climate change impacts.
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Now many large electronics manufacturers either use the unified RBA supply chain codes of conduct to supersede previous codes or develop their own versions based on the RBA framework. The prevalence of the RBA code across the industry shows that the creation of unified and stringent standards can drive positive change and raise sector-wide sustainability engagement.
Disclosure of sustainable supply chain practices, by country (Asia-Pacific) Figure 12
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
PakistanIndonesiaMalaysiaThailandSouth Korea
IndiaChinaAustraliaTaiwanJapan
Environmental supply chain policy
Social supply chain management policy
76%
65
45
63
25 31
24
34
17 18 14
22
11 10 7 8
3 4 2 2
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
Disclosure of sustainable supply chain practices, by sector (Asia-Pacific) Figure 13
Environmental supply chain policy Social supply chain management policy
Real Estate
Energy
Health Care
Consumer Staples
Consumer Discretionary
Financials
Materials
Industrials
Utilities
Information Technology
Telecommunication Services 47%
53
39 45
26 30
23 23 23
29 21 21 20
25 20
23
20 19 19
29 17
20
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Disclosure of charitable giving is most prominent among companies in China and Japan, though actual giving levels in these two countries are among the lowest About 1 in 4 companies across Asia-Pacific publicly report their charitable contributions. Companies in China and Japan have the highest disclosure rates for charitable contributions of all companies in the global sample, with over half of Chinese companies reporting these figures and 45 percent of companies in Japan doing so. Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are legally mandated to engage in and report on charitable giving, and many of the publicly listed companies are linked to SOEs. Other countries where disclosure of charitable contributions is widely adopted (relative to overall sustainability disclosure) include India (31 percent), South Korea (27 percent), and Pakistan (6 percent). However, disclosure does not necessarily equal performance. For example, although Chinese and Japanese companies have by far the highest disclosure rates for charitable contributions across Asia-Pacific, their companies’ median charitable contributions as a share of profit (before tax) are the lowest of any other country in the region and across the global sample.
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
MalaysiaIndonesiaPakistanThailandAustraliaSouth Korea
TaiwanIndiaJapanChina
Disclosure of charitable contributions, by country (Asia-Pacific) Figure 14
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
Charitable contributions disclosure rate (left scale)
Charitable contributions as a percentage of pretax profit (right scale)Percent Percent
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Methodology The Conference Board Sustainability Practices Dashboard and the analysis included in this report are based on data compiled by Bloomberg and drawn from multiple sources, including periodic sustainability reports, corporate websites, and a survey of corporate sustainability officers. Data included in this edition are from the most recent year available on Bloomberg as of August 9, 2018.
This edition of Sustainability Practices revises the methodology and sample used in previous years. Previous editions of this study used the S&P Global 1200 as the research sample. This edition expands the sample size and introduces country-level analysis. The sample used in this edition is based on the 250 largest publicly traded companies (by revenue) domiciled in each of the 10 largest economies (by GDP at Purchasing Power Parity) in North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. In total, sustainability disclosure data are analyzed for 5,164 companies across the three regions.
Across the global sample and for each region, the analysis examines disclosure by revenue group (under US$250 million; US$250 million to US$999 million; US$1 billion to US$4.9 billion; US$5 billion+) and by sector. The sector comparisons are based on the 11 business sectors defined by the Global Industry Classification Standard Code system (GICS). The analysis by country is conducted at the aggregate level.
Exhibit 1
Sample Distribution, by Sector
Global sample Asia-Pacific Europe North America
No. of companies
Percent of total
No. of companies
Percent of total
No. of companies
Percent of total
No. of companies
Percent of total
Consumer discretionary 886 17% 391 17% 382 18% 113 18%
Consumer staples 434 8 230 10 141 7 63 10
Energy 240 5 108 5 64 3 68 11
Financials 588 11 297 13 210 10 81 13
Health care 246 5 80 3 126 6 40 6
Industrials 994 19 432 18 468 22 94 15
Information technology 439 9 221 9 179 8 39 6
Materials 599 12 362 15 170 8 67 11
Real estate 267 5 106 4 135 6 26 4
Telecommunication services 93 2 43 2 39 2 11 2
Utilities 204 4 80 3 99 5 25 4
Undefined 174 3 12 1 155 7 7 1
Total 5,164 100% 2,362 100% 2,168 100% 634 100%
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
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Using the Dashboard This report presents the key findings from the full data set which can be accessed through the Dashboard. The Dashboard includes data on 91 environmental and social practices—encompassing, among others, atmospheric emissions, water consumption, biodiversity policies, labor standards, human rights practices, and charitable and political contributions. For each practice, the Dashboard illustrates the percentage of companies disclosing it as well as a median performance value for that practice (for example, the percentage of companies disclosing waste and the median waste generated by those same companies in metric tons). With respect to certain environmental practices (e.g., total GHG emissions, energy and water consumption, and total waste), the Dashboard includes data on intensity per employee and per revenue unit. Employee and revenue data are based on the latest data available on Bloomberg; for the purpose of this analysis, a revenue unit is equivalent to US$1 million.
Exhibit 2
Sample Distribution, by Revenue Group
Global sample Asia-Pacific Europe North America
No. of companies
Percent of total
No. of companies
Percent of total
No. of companies
Percent of total
No. of companies
Percent of total
Less than US$ 250M 1,203 23% 403 17% 747 34% 53 8%
US$ 250M to US$ 999M 1,358 26 673 28 535 25 150 24
US$ 1B to US$ 4.9B 1,321 26 650 28 550 25 121 19
US$ 5B+ 1,282 25 636 27 336 15 310 49
Total 5,164 100% 2,362 100% 2,168 100% 634 100%
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
Exhibit 3
Sample Distribution, by Country
Asia-Pacific Europe North America
Australia 246 Belgium 131 Canada 248
China 250 France 248 Mexico 137
India 248 Germany 237 United States 249
Indonesia 250 Italy 243
Japan 248 Netherlands 127
Malaysia 250 Poland 243
Pakistan 126 Russia 235
South Korea 247 Spain 209
Taiwan 250 Sweden 246
Thailand 247 United Kingdom 249 TOTAL: 5,164
Note: For some countries the sample is less than 250 companies due to data availability.
Source: The Conference Board/Bloomberg, 2018.
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About the Authors Thomas Singer is a principal researcher in corporate leadership at The Conference Board. His research focuses on corporate social responsibility and sustainability issues. Singer is the author of numerous publications, including Total Impact Valuation: Overview of Current Practices, Business Transformation and the Circular Economy, The Seven Pillars of Sustainability Leadership, and the comprehensive corporate sustainability benchmarking report Sustainability Practices. Prior to joining The Conference Board, Singer worked with Blu Skye Sustainability Consulting and SustainAbility, helping clients embed sustainability into their core business. Over his career, he has supported engagements with industry leaders across sectors, focusing on strategy development, opportunity assessment, competitive analysis, and stakeholder engagement. He began his career as a management consultant with Kaiser Associates, advising clients on white space opportunities, competitive analysis, and benchmarking. Singer is a graduate of Tufts University.
Anuj Saush is a senior researcher within the Sustainability Center at The Conference Board. He has over 15 years of experience working on sustainability strategy, supply chain, circular economy and social enterprises. Prior to joining The Conference Board, he was with PwC, UK. He started his career as an environmental consultant, focusing on strategy, innovation and auditing. He has a master’s degree in environmental policy from the London School of Economics and holds a civil engineering degree from North Maharashtra University, India. He has also attended the sustainability leadership program at the University of Cambridge. He is a Chartered Environmentalist and a member of the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment. He is also a trained coach and is currently pursuing an MSc in behavioral psychology and coaching at the Henley Business School.
Anke Schrader leads the research of The Conference Board China Center for Economics and Business on corporate citizenship, sustainability, and human capital. Her current research interests include corporate sustainability practices, measurement, and reporting; corporate citizenship and philanthropy engagement; civil society development; demographic changes in China and their implications for business and economic growth; China labor force evolution and development; and the evolving skill sets of China’s workforce. She is also responsible for coordinating China Center research programs, knowledge management, and outreach activities to members, institutions, co-operators, and the public. Anke graduated from the University of Konstanz, Germany with a master’s degree in Public Policy and Management.
Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Profs. Douglas S. Eakeley and Sarah Dadush of Rutgers Law School for their input, suggestions, and comments, as well as the Rutgers Center for Corporate Law and Governance for its overall support for this research initiative.
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