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Journalists, university probe listed companies' social responsibility

2014-04-11 09:31 chinadaily.com.cn Web Editor: Wang Fan
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An investigation has begun on the environmental, sustainable development and social responsibility of Chinese listed companies in 2013, officials from the China Forum of Environmental Journalists revealed on Thursday.

The investigation, conducted by the forum and the Beijing University of Chemical Technology, will result in a report that grades the listed companies based on international standards, to be published by the end of 2014.

"Enterprises should be the major cleaners of the pollution they have caused. Among them, the listed companies, which are larger in scale and exhaust emissions, should be the first to receive supervision from media and the public," said Liu Guozheng, secretary-general of the China Forum of Environmental Journalists.

In November, the forum and the university released the first such report, analyzing the environmental responsibility in 2012 of 617 listed companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges.

Result showed that Chinese listed companies lag far behind their international counterparts on information disclosure regarding their social and environmental responsibilities.

The average pass rate for companies in primary and secondary industries, which involved the retrieval of resources and the transformation of those resources into goods, was about 18 percent, while tertiary enterprises that involved services only had less than 7 percent pass.

"Problems found in last year's investigation were a lack of clear figures and comparable figures, and only two companies out of the 600-odd targeted companies that had published social responsibility reports, of all the approximately 2,000 listed companies on the two stock exchanges, had authentication from a third party," said Liu Xuezhi, director of the research center of low-carbon economy and management at the Beijing University of Chemical Technology and one of the experts who participated in the investigation.

Liu Guozheng said the first report has had some active effects on the supervision of listed companies since its publication, adding that the investigation will encourage more companies, listed or not, to publish social responsibility reports, and promote public participation in the supervision of these companies' environmental behavior.

"This year's investigation will involve new measures such as questionnaires and field research," he said.

Liu Xuezhi from the university said the second report may also include analysis of specific industries and a guideline on how to produce a environmental responsibility report as a reference for the companies.

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