New analysis into ASX200 companies and their ESG reporting standards yielded encouraging headway, but PwC says the top end of town needs to keep pace with increasingly informed stakeholders.
A PwC report released today titled ‘ESG reporting in Australia – the full story, or just the good story?’ found 87 per cent of Australia’s top 200 companies were up to standard with their environmental, social and governance reporting.
While marking a 29 per cent improvement on the previous year, PwC noted progress in some critical areas “could have been better” drawing attention to a lack of tangible goals and timeframes.
The report warned companies may run the risk of green or ESG washing without ensuring their disclosures genuinely reflect disclosures on environmental risks and opportunities.
Of the 36 per cent of the ASX200 who pledged a net-zero target, 69 per cent failed to provide details around timing of when they would deliver on promises.
“With stakeholders more attuned than ever to the impacts of climate change, companies have needed to amp up their response,” PwC Australia ESG Assurance Lead Matthew Lunn explained.
“Increased stakeholder activism has meant companies who make such disclosures have to be prepared to back them up with genuine plans to meet their stated targets – and be careful about how they label their operations or products as clean or green.”
A total of 66 per cent of companies said they did not have their ESG reporting externally assured.
Reconciliation action plans were an area of weaker performance in the report.
Over three quarters of companies included in the report are without a reconciliation action plan; a voluntary engagement to demonstrate commitments to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ economic participation.
Gender diversity remains the most well reported area with 95 per cent disclosing a gender diversity policy.
Companies listed on the ASX have no formal ESG reporting obligations at present.
