Key findings
Key findings
Most larger companies have a sustainability team responsible for ESG communications.
There is a broad mix between companies that report on ESG separately and those that produce integrated reports. Larger companies are more likely to report separately while a third of North American companies don’t report on ESG at all.
Conference calls are the most common ESG-related investor event.
Governance is the most common ESG-related issue to be discussed with investors. More than half of all small-cap IROs never discuss environmental issues.
Governance accounts for 44 percent of ESG reporting.
Just over a third of IR professionals monitor their ESG ratings at least quarterly.
Nearly half of IROs have participated in a survey from an ESG ratings agency in the past year. More than three quarters of mega-cap IROs have participated.
Better relationships with shareholders is clearly considered the main benefit of ESG disclosure by IROs.
More than two thirds of investors have neither attended an ESG-related conference nor participated in an ESG conference call in the past year.
More fund managers frequently take account of ESG ratings in their investment decisions than rarely or never do.
Most investors prefer to see ESG as part of an integrated report.
Fund managers view ESG as more important in investment decisions than do either buy-side or sell-side analysts, with 42 percent giving ESG an above-neutral importance rating.
Thirty-six percent of governance professionals say the corporate secretary or general counsel has primary responsibility for ESG communications.
At larger issuers, the most common type of direct interaction on ESG issues for governance professionals is ESG-focused conference calls. Almost half of governance respondents at larger companies have talked about environmental policy with investors at least quarterly over the past year.
Sixty-seven percent of governance professionals at smaller companies have talked about governance issues with investors at least quarterly over the past year.
Governance professionals are responding to more than seven information requests or questionnaires from ESG rating agencies/index providers each year.
Companies pay attention to ESG ratings: only 4 percent of large companies never check them.
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