More U.S. companies are formally reporting their corporate responsibility activities this year, including their environmental and sustainability efforts, though European companies continue to lead the way in this trend, according to a new report by KPMG International.
Among the top 100 U.S. companies, 83 percent report on their CR activities, up from 74 companies in a 2008 survey by KPMG. Globally, an average of 64 percent of the top 100 companies in the 34 countries analyzed by KPMG distributed CR reports, up 11 percentage points since the last KPMG analysis in 2008, and well ahead of the 37 percent in the firm’s 2005 analysis.
KPMG found that 95 percent of the world’s 250 largest companies report on their CR activities, up from 80 percent in the 2008 survey and from 50 percent in research carried out in 2005. The 10 leading countries where the top 100 national companies generate CR reports are United Kingdom (100 percent), Japan (99 percent), South Africa (97 percent), France (94 percent), Denmark (91 percent), Brazil and Spain (both 88 percent), Finland (85 percent), the United States (83 percent) and the Netherlands (82 percent).
However, data quality has become an issue in delivering CR information, particularly among larger, more complex organizations, with a third of the 250 largest global companies issuing restatements on their CR reports.
John Gimigliano, the tax leader for climate change and sustainability at KPMG’s U.S. firm, emphasized that applying a tax lens to a company’s green strategy can help drive an organization’s return on investment.
“Companies who look critically at their sustainability-related investments around facilities, energy and supply chain discover that federal and state tax incentives can improve ROI, lower effective tax rates and increase cash flow—with some of these benefits running as high as 50 percent of a project’s cost,” he said.
