The Communication on Progress (CoP) is an annual and mandatory requirement for all business participants of the UN Global Compact. In 2024, all Finnish participant companies submitted a digital questionnaire or a sustainability report. Over a hundred companies reported their policies and activities in 2023 with the Communication on Progress report. Here's the most interesting highlights from those reports.

Who responded?

Out of all the 135 Finnish respondents, 68 were large companies and 67 SMEs.

Methodology

Here’s how CoP reporting is done and how the data for the Finnish CoP highlights was collected.

Annual Communication on Progress (CoP) reporting is mandatory for all UN Global Compact business participants. A participant can either submit a digital questionnaire or a sustainability report. The latter can be a part of a larger company report – it does not have to be a separate report.  

In 2024, a total of 10,984 respondents from 149 countries reported their policies and activities in 2023 with the Communication on Progress report. Out of all the Finnish respondents, 68 were large companies and 67 SMEs. Europe had a total of 6,005 respondents, leaving 4,979 respondents to represent the rest of the world. In addition, over 5000 companies globally submitted a sustainability report.

Please note that the sampling (N) in some of the questions is smaller than the overall number of respondents, as some of the questions are voluntary, providing specifications for a policy or action.

The submission period for Communication on Progess reporting opens in early April and closes 31 July. UN Global Compact country networks receive data from CoP reports usually by the end of the same year.

CoP offers valuable learning opportunities, enabling companies to track their sustainability progress and better understand how they are performing over time. Participants can also compare their answers to global peers by sector, company size, or region/country.

Non-business participants are obliged to complete Communication on Engagement (CoE) every two years. This information is not included in this data.

Communication on Progress reporting is still developing and looking for its final form. The aim is that in short term future participants would be only able to submit the questionnaire, and the option of submitting a sustainability report would be removed. This would significantly increase the amount of CoP data available for comparison and development.