Developing economies lagging behind

Two new reports have shed light on CSR reporting around the globe, and have suggested that there is substantial room for improvement in developing economies.

The reports, commissioned by the Social Investment Forum, looked at the S&P 100 companies headquartered in the US and the 100 largest companies in ten emerging markets. Of the latter, only 30.6% reported environmental information.

Overall, the best of the emerging countries was South Africa, while the worst levels of disclosure were found in Israel, India, Indonesia and Mexico. However, almost all (96%) did report on at least one factor related to either governance or to social and environmental responsibility.

North American companies fared much better. In 2008, 93 companies included sustainability information on their web sites. Furthermore, 66 S&P 100 companies produced a formal sustainability report.

The top-rated companies were American Electric Power, Dow Chemical and Ford.