

S7-10-22, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), March 21, 2022. In the United States, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is considering new rules that would require more detailed disclosure of climate-related risks and greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions. In a number of jurisdictions, reporting ESG elements is either mandatory or under active consideration.

1 Sustainability reporting in focus, G&A Institute, 2021. More than 90 percent of S&P 500 companies now publish ESG reports in some form, as do approximately 70 percent of Russell 1000 companies. Across industries, geographies, and company sizes, organizations have been allocating more resources toward improving ESG. To take one example, there has been a fivefold growth in internet searches for ESG since 2019, even as searches for “CSR” (corporate social responsibility)-an earlier area of focus more reflective of corporate engagement than changes to a core business model-have declined. Since the acronym “ESG” (environmental, social, and governance) was coined in 2005, and until recently, its fortunes were steadily growing.
