Global Sustainability
As the global conversation on sustainability heats up, this
quarter's survey examined what steps companies are taking to become
more environmentally responsible, and why they may be taking them.
- The
most frequent "green" action among respondents' companies is reducing
energy consumption in company facilities (48%).
- This was followed by
reducing waste in production and packaging (30%) and promoting
incentives and initiatives encouraging customers to be "greener" (21%).
- Least popular initiatives were reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
from factories and plants (6%),
- Supporting legislation on environmental issues (7%)
While few are actively supporting legislation on environmental issues, sentiment toward governmental regulation of environmental responsibility is split among CFOs. Though nearly half (49%) believe regulation a bad response, more than one-third (37%) support government incentives to spur innovation, 14 percent support limits on emissions, and 9 percent support cap and trade and other financial incentives.
28% of Companies are Doing NOTHING
Cost Efficiencies Main Driver
More than one-third cited cost efficiencies as the main driver, 31 percent refer to personal priorities of their leadership as the cause, 29 percent say enhancement of public perception is the reason, and 24 percent point to a desire to emerge as a committed leader in the industry.
Additional Findings:
Other topics examined in this quarter's survey included
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), CFOs' perceptions
of Barack Obama's presidency nearly one year after his inauguration,
and the impact of the SEC's enhanced disclosures on risk, compensation
and corporate governance in annual reports. With regard to IFRS, an
overwhelming majority of CFOs (80%) are confident that IFRS will be
adopted, but do not know when. CFOs' perceptions of President Obama
remain low, with 64 percent reporting their U.S. economic outlook has
weakened since he took office.
Full survey results and historical data comparisons are available at www.cfosurveys.com or from Nicole Madison at Nicole.Madison@fd.com.
The study is also available online at the Financial Executives Research
Foundation bookstore and on the Baruch College home page at
www.baruch.cuny.edu.