Investor Attitudes to ESG Disclosures

One of the biggest challenges with ESG reporting today is understanding what information is required; what investors themselves want to know; what it is that the companies they invest in need to measure; what mandatory requirements apply now; and what mandatory requirements are on the horizon.

CMS has sponsored a study by The Quoted Companies Alliance on this topic. The study, conducted by YouGov, has investigated what institutional investors expect from companies when it comes to ESG reporting, how ESG impacts their investment decisions and what the future may hold. 

The fast changing and developing nature of ESG reporting poses particular problems for companies for whom the reporting requirements may only become obvious well into the reporting period and may require information from a number of different countries. Time and again, companies are playing catch-up, having to gather data in respect of historic periods or work out how to measure data after the fact.

Given the importance of ESG reporting to investors demonstrated in this report, it will be important for investors to recognise the challenges for companies in identifying and gathering the data to provide the reports they want. The challenge for companies is keeping up with, and preferably ahead of, those needs.

What the results mean for businesses

Hear analysis of the results from the QCA, CMS, Inspired Energy and Downing LLP.