PwC honours a Swiss quality and goods testing company
PwC has awarded a Swiss quality and goods testing company for its sustainability reporting. Since 2016, PwC has awarded this prize to companies that impress with their particularly transparent and credible reporting on sustainability aspects.
For the first time, the PwC jury - made up of representatives from business, academia, investors, supervisory boards and a rating agency - analysed integrated reports from Switzerland and Austria. From Switzerland, the company SGS, which specialises in services relating to auditing, testing, verification and certification, won the award for the best integrated report in Switzerland.
The company impressed the jury in particular with "its structured and quantitative approach to measuring social value contributions along its capitals," according to the experts.
"Corporate reporting in which the financial and non-financial value drivers are disclosed in a comprehensive and integrated manner is increasingly becoming the standard. As current discussions in society, including in Switzerland, show, stakeholders such as the public, investors and analysts now expect this. It is clearly no longer sufficient to provide only a picture of the financial position as well as the financial performance with the annual report.
In particular, there is a need to know the extent to which companies are taking social responsibility, addressing environmental, labour and human rights concerns, and how climate change might affect business performance. Ultimately, these are all core elements of comprehensive and value-oriented corporate governance as well as the proper management of risks," comments Stephan Hirschi, PwC Director and expert in CR and Integrated Reporting.
Climate reporting not yet satisfactory
In addition to this year's award winners, there are numerous other companies that impress with their integrated reporting. However, potential for improvement is seen in the implementation of climate reporting.
In the TCFD ("Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures") category, the jury decided not to select a winner this year, as the "current level of reporting across the entire study group is capable of improvement and does not yet meet the demands of the stakeholders", according to the expert panel.
