Corporate Sustainability Barometer 2012. State of the art and progress of sustainability management in major German companies

Sustainability challenges are becoming increasingly important for companies. Topics such as climate change, human rights and the finite nature of resources concern businesses more than ever. A growing number of companies and organizations thus address environmental and social issues, e.g. in form of reports, product innovations or the application of environmental and sustainability management tools and standards. Yet, little is known about the actual implementation of sustainability management. How do these measures impact the company on the one hand and the environment and society on the other? To what extent is sustainability integrated into the strategy and core business of companies?

Answers to these and further questions are given by the ‘Corporate Sustainability Barometer’ which serves to assess the state of the art and the progress of sustainability management in major companies. The data for the Corporate Sustainability Barometer is collected by the Centre for Sustainability Management (CSM) in a repeated survey among the largest companies in Germany extending beyond DAX 30 and MDAX 50. The current study is based on data collected in 2012.

The study is a comprehensive, broad range analysis of corporate sustainability in practice. In addition to the state of the art and the progress over time, the study also analyses current, relevant topics of corporate sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The current study focuses on training and development for corporate sustainability. The data is used to develop recommendations and enables companies to benchmark their own position.
In the course of the current study from 2012 the survey was also conducted in partner institutions in ten countries in Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. These results will be published in the comparative study ‘International Corporate Sustainability Barometer’.

The Corporate Sustainability Barometer project is intended to serve the advancement of corporate sustainability and to contribute to the public awareness of the relevance of companies for sustainable development.