An overwhelming majority (90%) of Canadian senior financial executives consider reporting on the environmental and social impacts of their companies to be important, according to a new from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) and the Canadian Financial Executives Research Foundation (CFERF), the research institute of FEI Canada.

Seventy-two per cent of respondents also claimed that their company understood which sustainability issues were most relevant to achieving their business goals. However, when asked if there was an effective strategy for managing these issues, only half of respondents reported that they had one in place.

Similarly, almost all (92%) senior finance executives felt that it was important to communicate sustainability performance to senior management and the board, while at the same time, over half admitted that they did not have an effective system and process in place for periodically measuring sustainability performance. Again, when asked if this same information should be periodically reported to shareholders, employees and external stakeholders, most agreed that this was important.

However, over half (55%) admitted that their companies did not have an effective system in place to enable this type of reporting. Indeed, most respondents (78%) believe that the average investor does not have enough information about the sustainability performance of Canadian companies.

“Several forces may be working together to explain the disconnect,” says Mike Harris, PwC partner and leader of the firm’s sustainable business solutions practice in Canada. “First, a general framework does not exist for measuring and reporting, making comparisons between industries a challenge. Second, many companies have not developed robust data collection systems to make the reporting process efficient and reliable. Third, most finance executives continue to only focus on the mandatory financial disclosures and finally, the cost/benefit of optional sustainability reporting does not provide support for the types of systems and process required to effectively implement it. Until sustainability reporting is mandatory, this is likely to remain the norm.”

The survey t was prepared by CFERF and was sponsored by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). It comprises the results of a survey conducted of 343 senior financial executives across Canada as well as the insights of individuals who participated in an Executive Research Forum.

Just under 50% of the survey respondents represent enterprises with annual revenue of $250 million or less, with the remainder being companies with revenues ranging from $250 to more than $20 billion.

IE