Nearly half of financial leaders in Singapore were dissatisfied or indifferent to ESG reporting systems – and 98 percent have no plans to invest time or resources to improve at all in the coming 12 months.
«Triple bottom line» (TBL) reporting on environmental impact (39 percent) was ranked the most difficult followed by social impact (34 percent) and governance (28 percent), according to a recent survey by fintech firm Workday.
This is despite all the rage worldwide, including widespread marketing efforts in the city-state, to promote the idea that conducting business sustainably has real effects on share price performance.
«While it is encouraging to see strong adoption of TBL reporting, it is concerning that so many business leaders still do not fully buy into the benefits of holding their companies accountable to more than just profits,» said Lee Thong Tan, CFO Practice Lead, Asia at Workday.
Conflicting Beliefs
Despite the planned actions, or lack thereof, at the firms they work at, respondents held contradicting beliefs about ESG reporting with 84 percent considering it important. Just 27 percent say ESG reporting should not be mandatory for any company.
In terms of how critical of a need there is for ESG reporting at the sector level, respondents named finance second-ranked (39 percent) only behind manufacturing (53 percent). Others reported include transport and logistics (35 percent), retail (18 percent) and tourism (17 percent).
No Tailwinds
The issue is not a matter of ESG reporting cost with only 10 percent of large companies citing it as an issue. The lack of a regulatory mandate (23 percent) was named as the primary barrier to encouraging ESG reporting, the report said, adding that the condition was also the main driver to a lack of resources (21 percent) and internal stakeholder support (19 percent).
In addition, the general public also has a role to play with 13 percent of respondents believing they did not see ESG reporting initiatives as important.
