So unlike the financial information that is reported by public companies using XBRL in the United States for example – the sustainability data is not in a machine-readable format for data analytics
Interesting debate yesterday before the US Senate Banking Committee on the topic of expanding disclosures of US companies to include environmental, social and governance data besides just financial disclosures. The US House Committee on Financial Services held a hearing on the same topic last week. From testimony before the US Senate Banking Committee: US Senator Sherrod Brown: “SEC should act to require uniform disclosure of corporate ESG factors, said ranking committee member Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio
On March 7, 2015 – We posted that in early May the US Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) would announce a government-wide common data standard for all federal spending information as mandated in the DATA Act unanimously approved by Congress and signed into law by the President of the United States in April 2014. The law requires that federal spending information be tagged using a common data standard (linked to government accounting definitions) and this information would be placed on an Open Data Cloud platform for public consumption and analysis since the information would be in a computer-readable format
Watch out United States EDGAR Online – the European Union is building a “next generation” -- “EDGAR-LIKE” corporate disclosure platform to be used by 28 EU member states for global investors that will be built upon BLOCKCHAIN and global financial and non-financial data access standards like eXtensible Business Reporting Language ( XBRL ) to expedite investments from global investors
This covers approximately 6,000 large companies and groups across the EU, including listed companies banks insurance companies other companies designated by national authorities as public-interest entities Information to be disclosed Under Directive 2014/95/EU, large companies have to publish reports on the policies they implement in relation to environmental protection social responsibility and treatment of employees respect for human rights anti-corruption and bribery diversity on company boards (in terms of age, gender, educational and professional background) Stay tuned as we look to the United States Securities & Exchange Commission for direction in this area
The US House of Representatives’ Financial Services Committee just created a Diversity and Inclusion subcommittee (the first in the nation’s history) to examine this important human capital topic and to understand what companies are disclosing this data, why and how the capital markets and government can support better disclosure. The financial services committee has Congressional oversight of the US SEC, PCAOB and the accounting and auditing profession, How Can Diversity and Inclusion Support a Company’s Business Case?