Almost 55% of U.S. executives say their firms have formal sustainability strategies in place, according to a new survey released Monday. Globally, however, that figure is higher: more than 62% of executives worldwide have implemented formal sustainability policies.
According to the KPMG international study Corporate Sustainability: A Progress Report, large publicly traded companies are more likely to have such policies, with nearly 8 in 10 among them reporting that they have already taken such actions; of smaller, privately held companies, only a bit under half have taken the initiative.
U.S. companies are trying to catch up, however. Add to that 55% already using them another 12% that are working on putting such a policy together, and another 19% that expect eventually to implement a formal sustainability plan.
According to John R. Hickox, who leads KPMG's Climate Change & Sustainability (CC&S) practice in the Americas, companies can be challenged in such actions by "what issues or measures they should use for reporting their environmental health, safety and corporate social responsibility program results to stakeholders—and how to utilize those metrics to transform their business operations."