G&A Institute’s New Research Shows 2024 Sustainability Reporting Rose to Record Levels as S&P 500® Companies Reach 99% Reporting

October 15, 2025

New York – Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. (G&A), a leading corporate sustainability consulting and research firm, today announced the findings of its 2025 Sustainability Reporting in Focus research report, focused on corporate reporting trends in the 2024 publication year for companies in the S&P 500® Index and the Russell 1000® Index. The research shows continued increases in sustainability reporting for both large-cap and mid-cap U.S. public companies1 - as publishing an annual sustainability report is now widely recognized as a best practice for U.S. public companies. The full report is available here.

G&A’s 2025 Sustainability Reporting in Focus is the 14th edition in its annual research series. The research provides detailed data and findings of overall sustainability reporting within these indices including analysis of report content including frameworks, standards, and initiatives used (GRI, SASB, TCFD, SDGs), trends in external assurance, CDP reporting, and sector-specific reporting trends within all 11 GICS® sectors. This year, G&A also began tracking alignment with new reporting initiatives including IFRS, ESRS and TNFD.

Key takeaways from G&A’s new research report include:

  • A record 94% of Russell 1000 companies reported on sustainability in 2024, up from 93% in 2023.
  • The smaller half by market cap of the Russell 1000 (mid-cap companies with approximately $2 billion-$4 billion in market cap) had the greatest alignment in reporting in 2024 - reaching 90% in 2024, compared to 87% in 2023.
  • The larger half by market cap of the Russell 1000 (i.e., the S&P 500) are nearing 100% reporters with a record 99% reporting on sustainability in 2024, compared to 98.6% in 2023.
  • SASB continued to be the most widely used sustainability standard, with 82% of Russell 1000 reporters aligning with SASB in 2024, compared to 81% in 2023 and only 12% in 2019.
  • TCFD reporting continued to increase, with 65% of Russell 1000 reporters aligning with TCFD in 2024, compared to 60% in 2023 and only 4% in 2019.

At the heart of sustainability disclosure is a better understanding of risk and reward – something investors and stakeholders deeply appreciate. Despite the anti-ESG pushback in some quarters, Corporate America continues to innovate and push forward with more detailed and informative reporting on a widening range of topics. Companies on the leading edge of this trend are well positioned for upcoming shifts from voluntary to mandatory sustainability reporting in a growing number of jurisdictions.

 

Louis Coppola, G&A’s Executive Vice President and Co-Founder, commented, “Over the past 14 years, our Trends research has chronicled how America’s largest public companies adopted sustainability reporting as a best practice because stakeholders demanded it, not because regulators required it. While policies may shift in Washington or Brussels, the fundamental reasons for sustainability reporting do not: the reporting process helps leaders sharpen strategy, strengthen resilience, understand risk, allocate capital, create value and build trust. That’s why the best companies keep going — and why G&A stands ready to help.”

 

Hank Boerner, G&A’s Chairman, Chief Strategist and Co-Founder, added, “At the heart of sustainability disclosure is a better understanding of risk and reward – something investors and stakeholders deeply appreciate. Despite the anti-ESG pushback in some quarters, Corporate America continues to innovate and push forward with more detailed and informative reporting on a widening range of topics. Companies on the leading edge of this trend are well positioned for upcoming shifts from voluntary to mandatory sustainability reporting in a growing number of jurisdictions.”

 

G&A proudly recognizes our research team of talented analysts who made significant contributions to this study:

G&A Research Supervisors: Elizabeth Peterson, SVP, Sustainability Consulting

G&A Research Team Leader: Natali Alsunna, Senior Sustainability Analyst

G&A Research Team:

  • Madeline Blankenship, Senior Sustainability Analyst
  • Grace Cusack, Sustainability Analyst
  • Neva Modric, Sustainability Analyst
  • Amelia Veleber, Intern Analyst
  • Zevid Lawrence, Intern Analyst

For more information on our team of research analysts please click here.

About G&A Institute, Inc.

G&A Institute is a leading sustainability consulting and research firm headquartered in New York City.Founded in 2006, Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc. (G&A) is a sustainability consulting and research firm headquartered in New York City. G&A helps corporate and investor clients recognize, understand, and develop winning strategies for sustainability and ESG issues to address stakeholder and shareholder concerns. G&A’s proprietary, comprehensive full-suite process for sustainability reporting is designed to help organizations achieve sustainability leadership in their industry and sector and maximize return on investment for sustainability initiatives.

Since 2011, G&A has been building and expanding a comprehensive database of corporate sustainability reporting data based on analysis of thousands of ESG and sustainability reports to help steer strategy for our clients and improve their disclosure and reporting. 

More information is available on our website at ga-institute.com.

 

ABOUT THE S&P 500®

The S&P 500 is widely regarded as one of the best gauges of large-cap U.S. equity market performance, measuring the stock performance of approximately 500 large-cap companies covering approximately 80% of the total U.S. equity market capitalization. For 2023, S&P Dow Jones Indices estimated that US$16.0 trillion in assets was indexed or benchmarked to the index. More information is available here. 

 

ABOUT THE RUSSELL 1000®

The Russell U.S. indices are market-weighted indices that serve as leading benchmarks for institutional investors to track current and historical market performance by specific market segment (large/mid/small/micro-cap) or investment style (growth/value/defensive/dynamic). The Russell 1000 Index includes the largest publicly-traded U.S. companies by market cap, which make up approximately 93% of the total U.S. equity market capitalization. The indices/benchmarks are provided by FTSE Russell, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG). More information is available here. 

 

CONTACT:
Louis D. Coppola, Executive Vice President & Co-Founder 
Governance & Accountability Institute, Inc.
Tel 646.430.8230 ext 14 
Email: lcoppola@ga-institute.com

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Source: G&A Institute, Inc.