The majority of Germany’s largest listed companies are planning to
include more information on their social and environmental performance
in their annual reports as a result of a new disclosure regulation
introduced in the country.
A survey commissioned by Deloitte and
the German Federal Ministry of the Environment suggests that more than
three-quarters of the DAX-30 will integrate non-financial key
performance indicators (KPI) into their next annual financial reviews,
as the German Commercial Code now requires.
A questionnaire
sent to those DAX-30 companies to which the regulation will apply this
year was completed by 16 businesses, of which 14 say they intend to
publish non-financial KPIs in the next annual report. The remaining two
said they would not do so because they have only limited social and
environmental impacts.
The regulation says annual financial
reports should, from this year, contain a description of the principal
risks that the company faces, and that this analysis should include,
‘where appropriate’, non-financial KPIs relevant to the business,
including information on issues such as the environment and employees.
Half
the respondents said they would feature the KPIs in a separate
‘sustainability’ section of the annual report and one in three plan to
provide a link to a standalone non-financial report.
A recent
survey of the 40 largest listed French companies found that a similar
regulation had improved the quantity and quality of non-financial
reporting in France (EP8, issue 1, p6).
