Average company participates in 24 sustainability initiatives, finds OECD

Study explores human rights and environmental practices among listed companies across the globe, based on their disclosures

The average company reports on 24 different sustainability initiatives, according to new research from the OECD, rising to nearly 100 in some cases. 

Based on the disclosures of the 500 largest listed firms between 2020 and 2025, the body identified nearly 1,100 unique sustainability initiatives – up from around 500 at the start of the century. 

“These initiatives can be multi-stakeholder, industry, or government-run and can fulfil a wide range of due diligence functions across different supply chain segments, geographies and issues,” wrote the OECD. 

The research also looked at disclosures from a wider set of companies – 10,000 listed around the world – to establish trends around human rights due diligence. 

More than half (58%) had some commitments around forced and child labour, with 40% having policies on freedom of association. 

“Commitments on each of these three topics are most prevalent in Europe by a clear margin, followed by Latin America and, in the case of forced and child labour, the US, Developed Asia-Pacific and Emerging Asia (excluding China),” the report noted.  

“Respectively, 39% of companies commit to environmental standards and 43% to social standards in their supply chain.” 

It found that 60% of large listed companies claimed to have a board-level or senior management sustainability committee in place, but only 35% disclose remuneration incentives tied to sustainability performance. 

When it came to suppliers, nearly half of large listed companies said they used environmental or human rights criteria in the selection process, although fewer than 20% reported evaluating supplier risk according to such criteria. 

“In most regions, expectations of suppliers with respect to human rights criteria are either as prevalent or somewhat more widespread than with respect to environmental criteria,” observed the OECD. 

“China is a notable exception, where companies are more than twice as likely to disclose the use of environmental criteria as human rights criteria to select suppliers.” 

On the risk side, the report noted that, in instances where environmental or social factors are considered, “there is evidence that companies evaluate all suppliers equally, regardless of their actual risk profile”.