Analyst Insight: Megatrends Impacting Corporate Sustainability

Virtually all parts of society are engaged in tackling the ill effects of climate change, from governments, public sector agencies, and organizations to not-for-profits to corporations to individuals. Corporations are particularly engaged in demonstrating their commitment to combatting climate change through environmental, social, and governance (ESG) accounting that measures and reports their carbon emissions, their impacts on ecosystems, and their actions for improvement.

Measuring and reporting methods are not aligned among industries, however, and sometimes not even within an industry. Additionally, each company can decide for itself whether to have its results audited or verified by a third party—measuring and reporting discrepancies that hinder anyone trying to analyze an industry’s sustainability progress and compare peer companies. The market needs a comprehensive database that collects and verifies sustainability progress among companies.

The first edition of the Guidehouse Insights Corporate Sustainability Tracker 1Q23 compares scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions as reported by 100 selected companies across 20 industries, for the years 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. It includes sustainability actions such as companies that have established dates for net-zero/carbon neutral targets, science-based targets, and achieving 100% renewable electricity. It also reports revenue-based carbon intensity for scope 1 and scope 2 emissions.

This accompanying Analyst Insight documents the Corporate Sustainability Tracker’s initial findings, including top-performing industries for scope 1, 2, and 3 reporting, and corporate sustainability drivers and barriers. It analyzes major trends including the effect of investor pressure on reporting rates; the rise in non-financial reporting; and innovative solutions for reporting scope 3 emissions.

Guidehouse Insights will publish the next Corporate Sustainability Tracker in 3Q 2023.