85% of Companies Expand Sustainability Investments... "CFOs Must Lead Disclosure Preparation"

Amid the global trend toward mandatory sustainability disclosures, an analysis has emerged emphasizing the need to reexamine the role of Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) in ensuring reliable disclosures and enhancing corporate value through effective practices.

On the 1st, Deloitte Korea Group announced this through a series of three reports titled "Sustainability Disclosure Guide for CFOs."

Recently, corporate sustainability disclosures have emerged as a key policy tool to mitigate the climate crisis. Corporate executives, boards of directors, as well as public and investor stakeholders, show high interest in sustainability performance. In fact, 45% of companies report that they place sustainability at the core of their corporate strategy to innovate their business models, and 85% are increasing investments in sustainability.

The report stated, "Sustainability disclosures require the rigor equivalent to preparing a company’s annual financial statements. Therefore, the role of CFOs with relevant capabilities is especially important." According to Deloitte’s survey, 32% of respondents identified the CFO as responsible for sustainability disclosures, and 16% responded that the CFO and Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) share joint responsibility. However, 60% of the surveyed companies have not anticipated the human resources needed to meet new disclosure obligations, and those who have forecasted expect the demand for human resources to double.

Accordingly, companies must secure personnel, technology, and capabilities to establish and operate sustainability frameworks and prepare operational models to execute disclosures. It is also necessary to accelerate capability development by training employees or, if needed, considering external recruitment and expert support.

Will Symons, Deloitte Asia Pacific Sustainability Leader, said, "The challenge for CFOs is to focus on ensuring that sustainability disclosures lead to business value creation." Taeho Park, Head of ESG Group at Deloitte Korea Group’s Management Consulting Division, stated, "Sustainability disclosure is not merely regulatory compliance but will transform decision-making systems. It is the prologue to innovation across all areas of corporate management, from data to processes and systems." He added, "We hope this report provides meaningful insights to corporate CFOs, who are central to sustainability reporting."

The full report is available on the Deloitte website.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.