The biggest companies in the Asia Pacific region got worse at reporting their sustainability performance in 2020, and improved in only one area — human rights — according to a report by Taipei-based consultancy CSRone. CSRone’s report measured the sustainability reporting performance of 99 of the biggest publicly listed firms in 10 countries in the region, analysing how extensively they tracked their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance, stuck to targets, and other factors. The study, titled Taiwan and Asia Pacific Sustainability Reports Analysis, found that while reporting improved from 2018 and 2019, it dipped last year, with the largest regression being how corporates reported on efforts to care for their employees. Last year’s disclosure decline was particularly marked in India, the weakest performer in the study, but also fell in Thailand, Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, and China. Jose Miguel Salazar, senior corporate sustainability specialist at CSRone, noted that in 2020, companies struggled to meet sustainability goals and disclose plans for improvement. Disruptions from the Covid-19 pandemic may have forced firms to rethink their sustainability goal-setting or reallocate resources to higher priority areas, such as taking care of employees or their communities, he told Eco-Business.

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