Teneo Insights recently published its fourth annual “State of U.S. Sustainability Reports,” which analyzes 250 sustainability reports from S&P 500 companies published this year through July 30, seeking to understand how companies think about their existing ESG strategies in 2024 given increasing pressure to abandon ESG initiatives against increasing regulatory requirements—and how companies might be adjusting their ESG communications in light of this tension. The report provides a number of interesting findings and highlights Teneo's top 10 takeaways, which are briefly summarized below and may serve as a useful guide to companies preparing their sustainability reports.
- The acronym “ESG” is down but not out. The most common key word in 2024 report titles was “Sustainability” (39%), surpassing last year's leader “ESG” (24%, down from 35% in 2023). This finding is perhaps not surprising given the recent anti-“ESG” backlash and polarization around the use of this umbrella term.
- Sustainability reports are getting longer, not shorter. The average length of 2024 reports increased for the third year in a row, averaging 83 pages compared to 70 pages in 2021.
- Double materiality assessments are becoming more prevalent. Almost 80% of companies conducted a materiality assessment (similar to 2023); however, the use of double materiality assessments tripled from 9% in 2023 to 27% in 2024. This rise in double materiality assessments likely correlates with the looming compliance deadline for the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which kicks in for most U.S. companies subject to the rule in 2026 (with respect to 2025 information), and requires subject companies to conduct a double materiality assessment.
- CEOs are increasingly accountable for ESG strategies. CEOs were noted as ultimately responsible for company ESG strategies 32% of the time, compared to 18% in 2023.
- [DE]I will survive. Despite the significant backlash against the DEI movement in 2024, 94% of companies continued to use the term “DEI” in some form in their reports, a modest decrease from last year. Among those that adjusted their DEI disclosure, most revised their disclosure to focus more broadly on themes of belonging and inclusion, which is consistent with the shift that a number of companies are now making in this area.
- Fewer press releases issued in parallel with sustainability reports. The number of companies issuing press releases with their reports dropped to 49% compared to 75% in 2021, when Teneo first started tracking this information.
- The EU’s CSRD and IFRS disclosure frameworks begin to surface. The EU’s CSRD disclosure framework was referenced in 13% of the 2024 reports compared to 0% in 2023, an increase that makes sense as more and more companies prepare for CSRD compliance. Five percent of companies mentioned IFRS. However, SASB and TCFD disclosure frameworks continue to dominate (referenced in 90% of the reports), followed by GRI (73%) and UN SDGs (64%).
- More companies are getting assurance on social data points. The majority of companies continue to obtain external assurance of at least one ESG data point (62%); however, more companies added social data points when getting data assured (32% in 2024 compared to 22% in 2023). This increase is also likely the result of more and more companies preparing for CSRD compliance, which requires assurance of all required information, social as well as environmental.
- Fewer companies provided an ESG goals progress section. Only 36% of companies included an ESG goals progress section in 2024 compared to 46% in 2023. This finding comes at a time when a number of companies are dialing back on their prior commitments on sustainability or, alternatively, signaling that they are “off track” with respect to previously announced ESG targets.
- Responsible AI disclosure emerges. Approximately 21% of companies note their responsible use of AI within their report (first year this was tracked by Teneo). This finding comports with the rise in companies disclosing AI-related risks and AI-related governance and risk management in their annual and other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the recent rise in AI shareholder proposals.
