A report by KPMG has higlighted that corporate social responsibility reporting among the top companies in the world is on the rise.
KPMG said corporate responsibility (CR) or sustainability reporting is now the norm with 95 per cent of Global Fortune 250 (G250) reporting on their CR activities.
According to its International Corporate Responsibility Reporting Survey 2011, this has also increased 15 per cent compared to the last reading in 2008.
Singapore has, however, lagged behind with only 43 per cent of respondents doing corporate reporting.
The survey sampled 16 sectors across 34 countries.
It is divided into two parts with an analysis of the top 250 companies listed on the Fortune Global 500 and another of the 100 largest companies by revenue in each country (N100).
Europe continued to see the highest reporting rates while around half of Asia-Pacific companies report on their CR activities.
Only seven per cent of Singapore’s top companies use an independent entity to audit their report.
N100 companies reporting by the consumer markets, pharmaceuticals and construction industries more than doubled since KPMG’s last survey in 2008, but overall numbers in some sectors — such as trade and retail and transportation — continued to fall behind.
Close to half of the G250 companies have reported gaining financial value from their CR initiatives and add that the growth of the ‘“green” products market is one of the main drivers.
CR is observed to be more popular among listed companies with 70 per cent reporting on CR.
“While family-owned and private equity-owned companies may face a different level of scrutiny than publicly traded companies, this does not exempt them from accounting for their positive and negative impacts on society, particularly in the modern information age,” KPMG said.
