UCLA Anderson's Open for Good Initiative Encourages Corporate ESG Transparency

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May 03, 2023, 20:55 ET

The interactive platform analyzes reporting data from S&P 500 companies

LOS ANGELES, May 3, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- UCLA Anderson's Center for Impact today launches a new initiative dubbed Open for Good, an interactive dashboard designed to encourage and disclose levels of corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) transparency among S&P 500 companies. The launch comes at a time of mounting pressure from investors, consumers and regulators on corporations to demonstrate their commitment to ESG measures through transparency and disclosure.

Through publicly available data, Open for Good researchers analyzed S&P 500 companies' ESG disclosures and assessed their transparency levels across 39 metrics, including greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, diversity and inclusion, and CEO-to-median-worker-compensation ratio, as well as audit status of the reported data. The Open for Good platform includes an interactive dashboard that enables users to adjust the weight of different disclosure areas and review the top-disclosing companies across specific business sectors.

This new initiative at UCLA Anderson is set to provide a roadmap for companies to improve their ESG disclosures and meet the growing demands of stakeholders. The results of the analysis, highlighting the companies that are leading the way, will be shared annually in the publicly available Transparency Index.

"We believe that information is power," said UCLA Professor Magali Delmas, the faculty director of the Center for Impact and a member of the faculty at both UCLA Anderson and the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. "By fully disclosing their ESG performance, companies can demonstrate their leadership, build trust with stakeholders and drive long-term value creation. Open for Good aims to empower companies to make this shift to transparency." Delmas also said that, unlike private, for-profit groups conducting similar analyses, Open for Good has a different incentive. "We're hoping that this tool will enable users to feel bit more comfortable with this type of data. We're hoping that other researchers will use this data and combine it with other data and research. All of it will provide a little bit more clarity," Delmas says. There is also an Open for Good introduction video.

In August 2022, Delmas and the Center for Impact released The State of Corporate Sustainability in 300 of the Largest U.S. Companies. This groundbreaking report found that the average ESG disclosure rate for 300 of the nation's largest companies is 49.6%, with a minimum of 14.8% and a maximum of 74.8%. That report aggregated sustainability performance information from corporate sustainability reports, websites and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) public filings.

About UCLA Anderson School of Management
UCLA Anderson School of Management is among the leading business schools in the world, with faculty members globally renowned for their teaching excellence and research in advancing management thinking. Located in Los Angeles, gateway to the growing economies of Latin America and Asia and a city that personifies innovation in a diverse range of endeavors, UCLA Anderson's MBA, Fully Employed MBA, Executive MBA, UCLA-NUS Executive MBA, Master of Financial Engineering, Master of Science in Business Analytics, doctoral and executive education programs embody the school's Think in the Next ethos. Annually, some 1,800 students are trained to be global leaders seeking the business models and community solutions of tomorrow.
anderson.ucla.edu

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SOURCE UCLA Anderson School of Management