World’s biggest companies bolster CSR reporting

Almost all of the world’s biggest 250 companies report on corporate responsibility activity with half saying that they have gained commercial advantage from doing so.

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A study of the Global Fortune 250 and 3,400 other companies worldwide by KPMG found that 95% carry out CSR reporting.

Japan and the UK are the leading countries with 100% and 99% of companies in each country respectively reporting. North American companies account for two-thirds of the 5% that do not report.

Almost half of the G250 companies report gaining financial value through sales of sustainable products or services from their CSR initiatives.

Wim Bartels, global head of KPMG’s sustainability assurance team, says that the quality and consistency of the CSR information reported needs to improve to increase this number further.

He adds: “CSR has moved from being a moral imperative to a critical business imperative. The time has now come to enhance CSR reporting information systems to bring them up to the level that is equal to financial reporting, including a comparable quality of governance controls and management.”

Read Marketing Week’s feature about how brands are adopting new CSR models that boost the bottom line as well as ethical practice

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