G&A’s New Research Shows Largest U.S. Companies Continued to Adopt Sustainability Reporting as a Best Practice in 2024

G&A recently issued the 14th edition of our annual research report on sustainability reporting trends among the largest U.S. public companies. In our Top Story this issue, G&A’s 2025 Sustainability Reporting in Focus provides detailed data and findings confirming that companies in the S&P 500 Index and the Russell 1000 index have adopted sustainability reporting as a best practice. Key takeaways from the report include:

• A record 94% of Russell 1000 companies, making up approximately 93% of all U.S. equity market capitalization, reported on sustainability in 2024, up from 93% in 2023. This represents a significant increase from 34% reporting in the 2018 publishing year, when G&A issued our first research on the full Russell 1000.
  
• The larger half by market cap of the Russell 1000 (i.e., the S&P 500) are nearing 100% reporters with a record 99% reporting on sustainability in 2024, compared to 98.6% in 2023.  This compares with just 20% reporting when G&A published our first annual research on trends in the 2011 publishing year.
• The gap between the larger half of the Russell 1000 and the smaller half by market cap (mid-cap companies with approximately $2 billion-$4 billion in market cap) continued to narrow, reaching 90% compared to 87% in 2023.
  

G&A’s co-founders commented on the reasons behind the increased adoption of sustainability reporting as a best practice for the largest U.S. companies. Louis Coppola, G&A’s Chief Executive Officer, said, “Our Trends research over the past 14 years demonstrates how U.S. companies adopted sustainability reporting as a best practice because stakeholders demanded it, not because regulators required it. While policies may shift in Washington or Brussels, the fundamental reasons for sustainability reporting do not change: the reporting process helps leaders sharpen strategy, strengthen resilience, understand risk, allocate capital, create value and build trust.”

Hank Boerner, G&A’s Chairman and Chief Strategist, said, “At the heart of sustainability disclosure is a better understanding of risk and reward – something investors and stakeholders deeply appreciate. Despite the anti-ESG pushback in some quarters, Corporate America continues to innovate and push forward with more detailed and informative reporting on a widening range of topics. Companies on the leading edge of this trend are well positioned for upcoming shifts from voluntary to mandatory sustainability reporting in a growing number of jurisdictions.”

G&A’s 2025 Sustainability Reporting in Focus report provides analysis of corporate report content including reporting frameworks and standards used – such as GRI, SASB, and TCFD. SASB continued to be the most widely used sustainability standard in 2024, with 82% of Russell 1000 reporters aligning with SASB, compared with 55% aligning with GRI. up from 78% in 2022. TCFD reporting continued to increase, with 65% of Russell 1000 reporters aligning with TCFD in 2024, compared to 60% in 2023.

Our research also examines alignment with initiatives such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), trends in external assurance, and CDP reporting. For the first time, we began tracking alignment with new reporting initiatives: the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Sustainability Standards, the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), and the Task Force for Nature-related Disclosures (TNFD). The report also includes sector-specific analysis of reporting trends within all 11 sectors of the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS®). 

As always, the G&A team is available to discuss our research and stands ready to help your company navigate the shifting to provide counsel to help your company prepare for upcoming shifts from voluntary to mandatory sustainability reporting in a growing number of jurisdictions. Reach out to us at info@ga-institute.com.

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