Overall Results
The Sustainability Governance Scorecard consists of three main pillars: board guidance and oversight, implementation and coverage, and continuous learning. We seek to identify whether Global Sustainability Leaders set policies, build structures, and incentivize people to provide good governance (guidance and oversight) over their sustainability efforts, assess whether the coverage of their sustainability efforts is comprehensive in terms of stakeholders, value chain and geographies, and whether continuous improvement is embedded in their efforts through continuous learning.
We have divided 197 GSLs into 5 Tiers based on the assessment of these criteria.
We find that there are country and industry-wide differences in sustainability governance quality. We also conclude that adopting global initiatives (i.e. UNGC, GRI, SASB, and <IR>) make a reasonable difference in sustainability governance quality and can hinder acceleration of progress towards better sustainability reporting.
Key Findings
- When comparing countries, German and South African companies are still leading in sustainability governance.
- With an increase in setting targets, German companies improved their position in sustainability governance when compared to the previous years. They are followed by UK and US companies.
- Turkish companies improved rapidly in sustainability governance and Indian companies showed progress in disclosing the skills matrix and prioritizing local empowerment.
- More than 75% of GSLs in South Africa and more than 70% in Germany are either in Tier 1 or Tier 2. They are followed by companies in India, United Kingdom, United States, China, and Türkiye, respectively.
- 51% of UK Companies are either in Tier 1 or Tier 2. In comparison to SGS 2020, the percentage of Tier 1 companies in UK decreased from 49% to 32% (It was 30% in SGS 2019)
- More than 50% of the GSLs in Natural Resources, Consumer Goods, Telecommunications, Automotive, Chemicals, and Pharmaceuticals are either in Tier 1 or Tier 2.
- In comparison to SGS 2020, the percentage of Tier 1 and Tier 2 companies in Natural Resources increased by 26% and Food Processors increased by 17%.
- Adopting global initiatives or approaches make a reasonable difference in the sustainability governance quality of the GSLs.
- 74% of the <IR> Reporting GSLs are Tier 1 or Tier 2 companies.
- 52% of SASB Reporting companies are either in Tier 1 or Tier 2.
- More than 50% of GRI Reporting companies are either in Tier 1 or Tier 2.
