Sustainability's challenge: Fix the hole in the reporting layer

HOLDING businesses accountable for their environmental and social impact is important and necessary.

But for all the feel-good initiatives to promote green financing or to mandate disclosures to actually be effective, there needs to be a sustainability reporting and assurance framework that is comparable and robust.

Sustainability has emerged as one of the biggest investment themes this year as regulators and institutional investors make it a top priority. This year's Fintech Festival, not surprisingly, cast a spotlight on sustainability and green financing. Temasek is stepping up the reporting of its environmental impact, and is gunning to be carbon neutral by 2020.