Sustainability committees in Latin American listed companies: analysis of roles and approaches

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to characterize the existence, functions and scope of sustainability committees in companies listed on the Colombian Stock Exchange, contrasting them with the sustainability committees of companies listed on the stock exchanges of Chile, Mexico and Brazil. To this end, the article begins with a literature review that allows contextualizing these committees within the framework of corporate governance, as well as identifying the most recent research and theories that support their study. From the study of 120 listed Colombian companies, it was identified that only 24.17% have sustainability committees. Through the analysis of their sustainability reports and the code of good governance, their names, functions by sector, applied reporting frameworks, reported items and prioritized SDGs were evaluated. The results show a greater presence of these committees in the financial sector, differences in their approaches according to industry and a still unequal commitment to the SDGs.