Despite current legislation in Congress attempting to block any requirements of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission regulating or reporting from organizations, there has been an increasing trend among large companies to voluntarily report on issues relating to sustainability. Giants such as Bank of America, Avaya, and Best Buy are among some of the many US-based companies who have released company-wide data on GHG emissions as well as details regarding their reduction goals. What has motivated these companies to release such information? According to Donald Delves, founder of a compensation consulting firm in Chicago and regular contributor to Forbes Magazine, such motivation comes from a company’s stakeholders.

Delves recently published an article on Forbes’ website in which he examined the influence of shareholders versus stakeholders within a company. In his article titled Whom Do Public Companies Now Serve? Delves writes, “Increasingly, large companies are demonstrating direct responsibility not just to shareholders, but also to employees, communities and the environment.” Stakeholders include any person, group or organization that has a direct or indirect stake in an organization, such as employees, non-government organizations (NGOs),  and communities. Delves highlights how in other countries, such as Germany and France, integrated reporting, a type of reporting that combines both social goals and financial results, has been the common practice among public companies. Companies in many other nations are “obligated to satisfy social expectations by tending to the interests of employees and other stakeholders.” This type of reporting, according to Delves, is becoming more common-place in the U.S. as companies strive to satisfy shareholders and stakeholders alike and increase public accountability.

Reporting on topics stakeholders’ value “can not only result in healthier customers, but in a healthier culture in which people will likely make it a point to patronize- and buy shares in- responsible companies.” To this extent, and as stakeholders become more and more environmentally conscious, we have to speculate on how long it will be before environmental data and, more specifically, carbon reporting will be required of all US companies’ operations by their shareholders. As more companies become involved in integrated reporting in which they share both sustainability and financial data, will competitors also feel the heat to do the same?

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