Over the last several years, an increasing number of institutional investors, ratings agencies, and other stakeholders have turned up the heat on companies to disclose their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives. The idea is that such information provides a more complete performance picture than traditional, purely financial, measures.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...