An organization called the Sustainable Investment Research Analysts Network has just issued a report that says more than half of America’s largest publicly traded companies now report on their sustainability effort. Over a third integrate elements of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) sustainability reporting guidelines. The GRI guidelines establish a standard for what should be in a sustainability report.

This demonstrates the extent to which sustainability initiatives have graduated out of Environmental Health and Safety departments into the corporate boardroom. Companies are being watched for their efforts to become sustainable.

Out of the 100 companies:

• 86 have corporate sustainability sites, a 48 percent increase from 2005
• 49 produced a sustainability report in 2007, up 26 percent from 2005
• 41 incorporate GRI standards, a 71 percent increase from 2005
• 34 include a GRI Index in their report, up 70 percent from 2005

The SIRAN study says a "sustainability report" must include data covering three or more areas of environmental, social or governance performance.

What does this mean? It means big investors are judging companies on their sustainability efforts, and measuring those efforts.