How they manage their people, energy and climate were the top material issues for leading sustainability corporates of 2016. This was accompanied by high prioritization of human rights (diversity and inclusion), ethics and corruption, the health and safety of employees, and related standards in supply chains. These surprising results were published by Materialitytracker in its annual analysis of the DJSI Industry Group Leaders, combining a manual analysis with a software analysis done by the London-based eRevalue. Among others, it found that details of corporate governance are more likely to be found in annual financial reporting, rather than sustainability or integrated reporting.

There were some important differences between what companies formally state to be their top material topics and what topics they most talk about in their annual sustainability reports (SRs) and integrated reports (IRs). An automated content analysis of the reports by the 24 Industry Group Leaders shows that five out of the top eleven most emphasized topics relate to climate and energy (including GHGs, energy efficiency and renewables). The automated analysis was done as MaterialityTracker adds machine learning capabilities to its analysis of the key material topics of the DJSI Industry Group Leaders.

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