Giving Compass' Take:

• Thomas Singer, on GreenBiz, reports on the inner workings and implications of recent trends in companies' sustainability reports.

• How can updates on recent trends inform your support in creating ethical company standards? What can we do to improve awareness even more? How might this effect companies in their sustainability efforts?

• Better sustainability practices can benefit everyone involved. Find out more here.

As companies prepare for the sustainability reporting season, here are four takeaways.

1. Sustainability reporting continues to increase
Across the global sample, nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of companies report their GHG emissions. That’s up from 21 percent last year. And in the U.S. sample (made up of the 250 largest companies by revenue), 56 percent of companies report GHG emissions. Last year, 49 percent of U.S. companies in the sample reported this data.

2. Increased disclosure isn’t always translating into changing practices
While disclosure is generally on the rise, this greater transparency does not always produce significant changes in practice — at least not yet. This disconnect highlights the fact that disclosure does not necessarily drive performance — at least not immediately.

3. Growth in sustainability reporting is creating demand for better data
As more companies report nonfinancial data, there is greater demand from investors for reliable, high-quality and comparable data. External assurance is one way to help provide some confidence.

4. Is the disclosure frenzy creating reporting fatigue?
Transparency is a good thing, and we can celebrate the increased attention by corporations to sustainability disclosure. At the same time, we should not focus too narrowly on disclosure. There is a real possibility that the requirements of various reporting frameworks and rating agencies may push companies — many of which have noted "reporting fatigue" — to prioritize responding to reporting requests over addressing the underlying sustainability challenges and opportunities that a particular company faces.

Companies face a daunting challenge in this environment: being mindful of the expectations for increased and standardized ESG disclosure, while at the same time focusing their sustainability efforts on the issues that are most material to their business and telling their story authentically and effectively to multiple constituencies.

Read the full article about company sustainability reporting by Thomas Singer at GreenBiz.