How coming clean on environmental impact helps companies grow

The author contends that transparency regarding environmental impact, specifically through standardized frameworks like SASB and CDSB, benefits both investors and the planet. Citing studies from Henley Business School, Harvard, and Boston Consulting Group, the text asserts that companies with strong sustainability ratings and disclosures outperform peers in share price and margins. The document argues that if businesses globally adopted these reporting standards, CO2 emissions could be reduced by approximately 10 billion tons by 2030, helping bridge the gap toward the COP 21 two-degree scenario goal.

• Research indicates a positive correlation between carbon emission disclosures and financial success for companies in the UK, where the act of disclosing alone improves share price performance.
• Harvard researchers found that companies with strong ratings on material sustainability issues (based on the SASB framework) achieved an estimated annualized alpha of positive 4.83%, compared to negative 2.20% for firms making no investments.
• A Boston Consulting Group report found that investors gave top performers in specific ESG topics valuation multiples between 3% and 19% higher than median performers, with margins up to 12.4% higher.
• Widespread adoption of sustainability reporting by relevant businesses could reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 10 billion tons by 2030, which is about half the difference between the "business as usual" projection (61 billion tons) and the COP 21 two-degree scenario goal (42 billion tons).
• Current corporate sustainability reporting is often ineffective; while 82% of the S&P 500 issued reports in 2016, 76% of those failed to disclose metrics and 53% used boilerplate language.

APA

McDermott, J. (2018). How coming clean on environmental impact helps companies grow. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/going-green-helps-companies-grow/

Chicago

McDermott, Jeffrey. How coming clean on environmental impact helps companies grow. World Economic Forum, 2018. https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/going-green-helps-companies-grow/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=McDermott |first1=Jeffrey |title=How coming clean on environmental impact helps companies grow |publisher=World Economic Forum |date=10 January 2018 |url=https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/going-green-helps-companies-grow/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{mcdermott2018how, author = {McDermott, Jeffrey}, title = {{How coming clean on environmental impact helps companies grow}}, publisher = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = jan, url = {https://www.weforum.org/stories/nature-and-biodiversity/going-green-helps-companies-grow/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }