ASX 100 leading the way on sustainability

UN KPMG climate change

3 December 2020
| By Laura Dew |
image
image
expand image

Sustainability has been given a boost as the number of Australian companies who are linking their business activities to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) has “improved dramatically” since 2017.

A survey by KPMG which looked at over 5,000 companies in 52 countries found 98% of companies in the ASX 100 were including reporting on these goals, up from 93% in 2017.

The firm said Australian companies had moved from being a “laggard” in 2017 to being in a position where the majority of firms used the Global Reporting Initiative framework.

Some 92% of the companies were including the information in their annual reports, compared to 76% of companies globally.

The UN SDGs covered challenges such as poverty, inequality, climate change and gender equality and the most-common ones considered in Australia were climate action (75% of firms), decent work & growth (69%) and gender equality (63%).

However, Australia fell behind when it came to sustainability reporting frameworks and obtaining external assurance over sustainability information.

Adrian King, global chair of sustainability, climate change and ESG services at KPMG, said: “Since our last survey in 2017, wider stakeholders have begun to expect more of companies, which in turn have sought to prove their social licence to operate by connecting their activities to the SDGs”.

“Both here and globally, climate action and sustainable, inclusive economic growth are the top two goals, but gender equality appears to be a larger concern in Australia than the rest of the world (63% in Australia, compared with 43% globally).

“So does biodiversity – with 30% of ASX 100 reporting SDG 15 – Life on Land as being relevant to their business compared to just 9% internationally. But there is still a long way to go here as only 17% state that biodiversity and nature loss is a risk to their business.”

Read more about:

AUTHOR

Recommended for you

sub-bgsidebar subscription

Never miss the latest news and developments in wealth management industry

MARKET INSIGHTS

Completely agree Peter. The definition of 'significant change is circumstances relevant to the scope of the advice' is s...

3 weeks 5 days ago

This verdict highlights something deeply wrong and rotten at the heart of the FSCP. We are witnessing a heavy-handed, op...

1 month ago

Interesting. Would be good to know the details of the StrategyOne deal....

1 month ago

Insignia Financial has confirmed it is considering a preliminary non-binding proposal received from a US private equity giant to acquire the firm. ...

1 week 3 days ago

Six of the seven listed financial advice licensees have reported positive share price growth in 2024, with AMP and Insignia successfully reversing earlier losses. ...

5 days 22 hours ago

Specialist wealth platform provider Mason Stevens has become the latest target of an acquisition as it enters a binding agreement with a leading Sydney-based private equi...

5 days 2 hours ago