The analysis of sustainability targets of 151 Swiss companies shows a continuous improvement of sustainability reporting in recent years and a target setting that is increasingly SMART as well as impact-oriented. Despite this development, the targets set are not ambitious enough to meet the requirements of the 2030 Agenda. Reasons for this are:
- Strong focus on climate protection measures, with too little attention paid to other relevant environmental issues.
- Target setting in the climate area not yet sufficiently ambitious to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
- Most companies set targets for their own business activities. The respective supply chain is largely disregarded, although this is often where the potential for impact is greatest.
- The Global Reporting Initiative and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represent the most widely used frameworks or standards. Other standards such as the SASB or TCFD show increasing importance.
- Large industry differences, both in terms of reporting quality and goal setting, at the same time no differences between SMEs and large companies can be identified.
As part of the Focused Reporting Benchmarking 2021, sustainability and integrated annual reports were examined for the third time. Since its beginnings in 2017 with 101 companies, the analysis represents the largest benchmarking of Swiss companies in the area of sustainability. While 123 companies were examined in 2019, the number was already 151 in 2021. Focused Reporting was initiated by engageability, a competence center for innovative and sustainable solutions and stakeholder engagement, and öbu, the Swiss association for sustainable business, and is conducted in collaboration with the Institute for Business Sustainability and RepRisk, the global database on environmental, social and governance risks. A multi-stakeholder panel of experts ensures the credibility and high quality of the analysis.
The main results were evaluated and published by engageability on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment and in collaboration with the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland.
Access benchmark report here (in German) and the executive summary (in English) Download the PDF here.
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