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Investing in Society

Investing in Society organizes its insights as a company might in its own scorecard: Priorities, Performance, People, Planet, and Policies (the five “Ps” framework).

Published Apr 06, 2021

CECP (Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose)

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Investing in Society is the must-read digest for the state of corporate purpose, used by corporate leaders from the world’s largest companies to understand more completely the state of corporate purpose and whether certain areas are improving or worsening. The annual report is the authoritative source to assess the corporate sector’s progress toward being increasingly purpose and stakeholder driven.

Each section offers compelling and practical examples of business at its best.Investing in Society organizes its insights as a company might in its own scorecard: Priorities, Performance, People, Planet, and Policies (the five “Ps” framework).

New this year in Investing in Society are CECP’s ESG Factor Analysis and Stakeholder Scorecard. The Factor Analysis explores the degree to which financial and ESG metrics are correlated with each other, while the Stakeholder Scorecard offers a performance snapshot of Fortune 500® companies against ESG and financial performance metrics.

Investing in Society highlights include:

PRIORITIES: Corporate purpose is helping to define stakeholder capitalism and companies are embracing the potential of purpose through CEO advocacy, bridging divides across opposing groups, updating their purpose statements, rethinking work/life balance, and focusing on the health, well-being, and skills of their employees.
PERFORMANCE: Companies are increasingly integrating ESG metrics through the business. The interconnection between financial performance and ESG prioritization may be more clearly evidenced in the long-term. The importance of improving financial performance in the corporate sector goes in hand with having a more equitable and prosperous society. Read more about CECP’s metric, Total Social Investment, and how companies are changing business practices to create sustainable value for the significant stakeholders in WEF’s report, Measuring Stakeholder Capitalism.
PEOPLE: A growing number of companies are taking meaningful steps toward a more equitable workplace. CECP’s Factor Analysis found that 45% of companies showed improvements in diversifying their employees and management teams while another CECP Pulse Survey found that 73% of companies predicted their 2021 DEI budget would increase
PLANET: Companies continue to make progress on climate change and other environmental issues, despite a lax regulatory environment over the last four years. CECP’s Factor Analysis found that 69% of companies had a positive impact on the environment by reducing their GHG emissions, total electricity consumption, amount of energy used, and more.
POLICIES: CECP’s Factor Analysis found that 56% of companies made progress in their efforts to improve compensation transparency and accountability. Companies also improved acting on the idea of integrated corporate governance. The number of companies with a CSR/Sustainability (or related terms) committee on their Board rose 14% between 2017 and 2019.