Client success
Preparing a Consumer Products Company to Respond to Sustainable Reporting Demands
As a publicly traded company in consumer-focused product categories, Fortune Brands needed to respond to investor, customer, and employee demands for transparent reporting on its environmental, social and governance efforts.
The Challenge
Fortune Brands’ portfolio includes many industry-leading home and security products on the market and in home improvement stores. While Fortune Brands considered itself a highly responsible company, it did not have a single comprehensive source of information to accurately report on Fortune Brands’ sustainability reporting efforts. This led to incomplete and inaccurate information being reported on key sustainability ratings assessments used by investors, such as MSCI ESG Ratings and ISS Environmental and Social Disclosure QualityScore ratings assessments.
Fortune Brands needed to meet growing investor, customer, and employee expectations for transparent sustainability reporting, but lacked a centralized, reliable source of information. Enabling better sustainability reporting was critical for Fortune Brands as investors, customers and employees increasingly see the link between long-term company success and business operations that consider sustainability issues. Fortune Brands needed to better communicate its sound and sustainable business approach.
Our Solution
Standing Partnership helped the company develop a reporting strategy. We audited their sustainability policies and investor sustainability rating assessments and delivered a competitor analysis to identify gaps and opportunities. Combining that intelligence with our experience in sustainability reporting frameworks, we helped Fortune Brands outline the right content, performance indicators and format for its first-ever Sustainability Report in 2018.
The Impact
As a result, Fortune Brands improved its ratings scores with both MSCI ESG Rating and ISS QualityScore following its first report, and continues to see annual improvement on sustainability ratings. In addition, Standing now provides annual support with the company’s submissions with ratings agencies, including the Dow Jones Corporate Sustainability Assessment, and EcoVadis, as well as complete the annual CDP assessment.
Standing and Fortune Brands recognize sustainability reporting improvement is an on-going process, with frequently changing expectations. Throughout the years, we have helped Fortune Brands optimize and adapt its sustainability reporting, including adherence to SASB, GRI and TCFD, to meet ever-evolving stakeholder needs.
Featured Insight
Why B2B Companies Need a Sustainability Reporting Strategy
B2B companies are facing increased pressure from investors, regulators and customers to start—or improve—reporting on sustainability matters. Climate change, employee health and safety, DEI—companies today are facing these important issues…
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