Back in May, we published a detailed analysis of proxy season disclosure trends. We are finalizing a research paper analyzing trends across all sustainability-related disclosures covering workforce representation, employee development, pay equity, and board of directors—sign up now to get the full report emailed to you when it’s published. In the meantime, here are the highlights:
1. Better late than never
What stands out most this year is how many companies are delaying their sustainability-reporting compared to past years. A significant number of companies that published by this time in the past few years have yet to do so this year, and the difference is most stark at the largest companies—only 64 of the S&P 100 have published this year compared to at least 83 in the past 3 years.
Here is a sample of companies that have always released reports before the end of June each year, but have yet to publish this year:
- Adobe
- Alphabet
- Boeing
- Charles Schwab
- Charter Communications
- Comcast
- Duke Energy
- General Motors
- Goldman Sachs
- IBM
- JPMorgan Chase
- RTX
- Verizon
2. What’s in a name?
DEI is effectively dead. Only 6 S&P 500 companies have published a standalone diversity report this year, down from 51 last year and 74 in 2023. The word ‘diversity’ has basically been scrubbed from all reports and replaced (if mentioned at all) with inclusion or belonging.
And ESG seems to be on its way to the graveyard as well. Less than 10% of S&P 500 companies that have published a standalone sustainability-related disclosure so far this year used ‘ESG’ in the title, down from nearly a quarter last year and more than a third in 2023. Sustainable/Sustainability has steadily gained ground, while Impact is the most favored replacement for ESG.
3. Transparency takes a hit
Our transparency score, which measures from 0-100 the % of quantitative metrics companies disclose across board of directors (20%), workforce representation (50%), employee development (20%), and pay equity (10%), steadily rose from 2021-2025, but we have seen a significant pullback this year. This is mainly due to severe rollbacks in board diversity disclosures (as covered in our earlier report) and cuts to workforce representation disclosures.
Of S&P 500 companies that have reported this year, 39.7% of companies decreased their level of workforce representation disclosure and 51.9% held steady, while only 7.8% increased their level of disclosure. Nearly 8% of S&P 500 companies went from disclosing a significant amount of quantitative information about their workforce demographics to reporting absolutely nothing, including Johnson & Johnson, Mastercard, AT&T, Qualcomm, Bristol-Myers Squibb, 3M, Equifax, General Mills, and United Airlines.
4. EEO-1s are still okay
Nearly 80% of S&P 500 companies have publicly disclosed an eeo-1 report since the start of 2024. While that has declined slightly from a few years ago, we still expect over 70% to publish a 2024 report by year-end.
Even several companies that disclosed nothing else about the makeup of their workforce published an eeo-1 this year, including Eli Lilly, Skyworks Solutions, Gen Digital, and Baxter International. It seems companies are comfortable including a link to the report but not aggregating/publishing gender and race/ethnicity representation figures.
5. Disclosures are down (nearly) across the board
Companies that are cutting back disclosures are doing so nearly across the board, except for turnover/attrition figures which have so far held steady.
We are eager to see whether late reporters change the equation, as companies that were near the top of our transparency rankings (BNY Mellon, General Motors, Microsoft) are still yet to disclose.
Want much more granular analysis including breakouts by sector and companies that are federal contractors? Don’t forget to sign up now to get the whitepaper in your inbox when we publish in a few weeks!
What we’re reading:
- Big US Companies Are Disclosing Less of Their Work in DEI… But That Doesn’t Mean They’re Abandoning DEI (The Conference Board) and DEI Chatter Plummets Among Previously Vocal Corporate Advocates (Bloomberg Law)
- Stewardship providers tailor services in response to US ESG backlash (Responsible Investor)
- How Chipotle became a Wall Street darling — and a ‘Wall of Shame’ employer (Business Insider)
- Four Things No One Will Tell You About ESG Data (Journal of Applied Corporate Finance)
- How an ESG-focused asset manager makes assessments (Harvard Business School)
- Texas overplays its hand with new anti-ESG law (Financial Times)
- Return to Office Split Deepens Banking’s Transatlantic Divide (Bloomberg)
- 6 in 10 Companies That Eliminated DEI Since Trump’s Reelection Are Hiring Fewer Diverse Employees (Resume.org)
- ESG Mid-Year Update: Who Still Cares, and Why You Should (Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance)