Ernst & Young released a report earlier this week that explains how sustainability can and will change the role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).

Opponents of fracking have taken their cause to energy companies’ shareholders, and the results are impressive. Recent shareholder resolution votes on fracking resulted in huge percentages of “yes” votes.

One small but significant trend, is making its way onto proxy statements. Last week Prudential tucked into its proxy statement a few comments about its corporate citizenship efforts.

Recently Ceres concluded that while large companies that register with the SEC have overall improved their climate change risk disclosures in recent years, more work needs to be done. Most public companies are still very vague about risks associate with climate change, despite the SEC’s directive issued last year.

Last year advocates for corporate social responsibility were abuzz over the Security and Exchange Commission’s directive that advised public companies to articulate any risks associated with climate change. The GOP Congress, however, wants the US business climate to lurch backwards.

The SEC is looking for an “investor advocate,” which intuitively seems redundant since the SEC is supposed to advocate for investors large and small. Nevertheless, the new posting could have a role the helping small investors who face all kinds of problems when dealing with financial services and investment advisory firms.

As Michael Meehan explained last week, sustainability has moved out of the token CSR office, into the C-suite and in the halls of the finance department. Water efficiency and carbon emissions tracking have also found their way on the balance sheets, as companies want to demonstrate to their shareholders that they are reducing costs and mitigating risks.

Depending on what you are tweeting or broadcasting on social media sites on the behalf of your company, you had better be careful: the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has established some guidelines on what needs to be kept in your firm’s records.

The financial reform legislation in Congress, the Dodd-Frank act, is sure turning into a monstrosity. Now it’s totaling over 2000 pages. Tucked away in the bill, in a “miscellaneous provision,” Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana slipped in language covering the disclosure of revenues from oil and mineral extracting companies.

If government agencies are going to require industries and companies that they regulate to offer more disclosure, perhaps these agencies should issue reports so that their vendors, employees, and of course, the taxpayers, understand the impact these agencies are having in their communities?