More than 100 business houses globally, including Reliance Industries, Mahindra Group and Wipro from India, have committed to including Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics in their annual or sustainability reports, the World Economic Forum said on Tuesday.

Of these, more than 50 have already begun including Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics, an initiative of Geneva-based WEF, in their mainstream financial and regulatory reporting. These include PayPal, PwC, Petronas, S&P, Salesforce, Total and Yara International.

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The ‘stakeholder capitalism metrics’ initiative of the WEF, which describes itself as an international organisation for public-private cooperation, seeks to improve the ways that companies measure and demonstrate their performance against ESG (environmental, social and governance) indicators and to enable positive contributions towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The project’s twin objectives are to accelerate convergence among the leading private ESG standard-setters and to bring greater comparability and consistency to the reporting of ESG disclosures.

During its ongoing Sustainable Development Impact Summit, the WEF said that the international support is growing for the stakeholding capitalism metrics initiative with more than 50 companies having begun reporting these metrics in their 2020-2021 filings, while over 100 have shown support for this initiative so far.

The summit brings together global leaders from business, government, and civil society under the theme ‘Shaping an Equitable, Inclusive and Sustainable Recovery’.

Those having committed to such reporting include Accenture, Allianz, Bank of America, Dell, Deloitte, EY, HEINEKEN, IBM, Mahindra Group, Mastercard, Nasdaq, Nestle, Reliance Industries, UBS, Unilever and Wipro.

Drawn from existing standards, the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics provide a set of metrics that can be reported on by all companies, regardless of industry or region, the WEF said.

The metrics also offer comparability, which is particularly important for informing ongoing efforts to create a systemic, globally accepted set of common standards for reporting on sustainability performance.

“We are delighted to see so many companies joining this effort and, even more so, excited to see many already implementing the metrics into their reporting,” WEF Managing Director Olivier Schwab said.

“This is the first time we have publicly seen this breadth of data from global companies across sectors on ESG factors. The Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics are already demonstrating that consistent and comparable ESG reporting can help articulate to stakeholders the collective contribution of ESG commitments,” Schwab added.

An early analysis of reports already incorporating the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics in mainstream reporting demonstrates that it is now easier to consistently measure individual company progress against critical ESG areas, as well as the collective impact of those companies committed to reporting the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics.

An initial analysis of the first 45 reports from companies shows how companies are building skills for the future, with over USD 1.5 trillion invested in training.

They also indicate that companies are innovating for better products and services, with over USD 20 trillion spent on R&D and USD 23 trillion in cumulative multi-year innovation investments. They are also contributing to their communities and social vitality with nearly USD 140 trillion in taxes.

The WEF said companies have also faced some challenges reporting on the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics. These include data accessibility, jurisdictional challenges and data-processing capabilities.

Despite these challenges, corporate support for ESG reporting and the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics initiative continues to grow and the Forum will continue to invite all of its partners to join this initiative, it added.