Hundreds of companies skipped publishing sustainability reports in 2025
The drop is largely due to small and medium-sized business opting not to publish. Read More
- A survey of 3,000 U.S. businesses revealed a 17 percent fall in the number of reports.
- The decline is the first seen in the five years the survey has been running.
- Factors behind the change include reduced pressure from investors and greenwashing risk.
Close to 300 U.S. companies that published sustainability reports in 2024 didn’t in 2025, according to a survey.
A few major companies that had previously published reports, including NextEra Energy, Charter Communications and Charles Schwab, did not do so last year. But the analysis of publicly traded companies by The Conference Board, a business-oriented think tank, and its data partner, ESGAUGE, found that even more small and mid-cap firms abstained.
Last summer, the two organizations noted that the number of companies filing sustainability reports in the first half of the year had fallen by almost 50%. When the organizations followed up this year, they discovered that most S&P 500 companies had chosen to delay rather than cancel publication. But when they looked at the broader Russell 3000 index, which includes 98 percent of the investible U.S. equities market, they found only 1,444 sustainability reports in 2025, a 17 percent fall from the 2024 figure of 1,739. It’s the first time the five-year-old survey has revealed a drop.
Russell 3000 companies publishing an annual sustainability report
Less investor pressure, greater legal risk
There are multiple reasons why small and mid-sized companies might forgo publication, said Andrew Jones, principal researcher at the board’s Governance and Sustainability Center.
Investors and other stakeholders are asking fewer questions about sustainability, for starters, which reduces the pressure on companies to be transparent about emissions and other metrics. Risks have increased, with companies facing court cases over use of carbon credits and other greenwashing issues. Legal threats against CDP and the Science Based Targets initiative, two key voluntary standard setters, may also have had a chilling effect.
“CEOs and C-suites are asking, ‘Why continue to do this? Do you get the return from the investment?’,” said Jones. “I think for now, we can definitely say that a significant minority has backed away from sustainability reporting.”
NextEra Energy directed Trellis toward a list of sustainability resources on its website but did not clarify why it had not published a full report in 2025. Charles Schwab and Charter Communications did not respond to a request for comment.
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