Over the last year, COVID-19 has dramatically altered our lives with a swiftness and ferocity not seen before – at least in most of our lifetimes. It has upended personal lives and financial markets, challenged the fundamentals of how companies operate and triggered a re-evaluation of long-held assumptions about the global economy. Underlying threats to business and society such as systemic inequality that existed before have not gone away but have been amplified, leading to social unrest and exacerbating inequality in many countries.

It is clear that the long-term strategic thinking set out by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement, WBCSD’s Vision 2050 and the broader push for more inclusive forms of capitalism are needed more than ever. Companies must be resilient and maintain their sustainability momentum to survive. We must all build forward better as we navigate the recovery phase of the global pandemic and not lose sight of systemic issues lingering beneath the surface.

This year, Reporting matters presents a focus on the acute impacts of the pandemic and seeks to tie it into other pressing sustainability issues, how WBCSD is responding and the role of corporate sustainability reporting in this environment.

Access the recordings and the slides of the virtual launch event on 21 October 2020 here covering key trends with roundtable discussions with companies showcased in the report.