A decade ago, companies received a trickle of requests for information about their environmental and social record. That has swollen into a flood. Some large companies now receive as many as 200 questionnaires a year from ratings and research agencies, fund managers, government departments, consultants and academics.
Everyone, except those with something to hide, agrees that transparency is a good thing. But company officers and fund managers who assess all this information are groaning under the workload.
