Freedom Holding Corp. ranked 18th among the best Kazakhstani companies for ESG disclosure in 2023, according to the international auditing and consulting firm PwC.
The company has analyzed reports from 98 businesses across the energy, oil and gas, finance, and mining industries leading the rankings. The top ten features Samruk-Energy, NC Kazakhstan Temir Zholy, Solidcore Resources plc, NAC Kazatomprom and NC KazMunayGas, among others.
The evaluation criteria are categorized into five blocks:
- Sustainable development strategy;
- Corporate governance;
- Society;
- Environmental impact;
- Reporting practices.
The average score of the top 50 companies rose from 5.1 to 6 points, reflecting a significant improvement in quality compared to the previous year:
- 54% of them provide a list of ESG risks;
- 84% of them showcased goals relevant to their business, and which the company intends to work on;
- 78% of companies disclose information about direct emissions and 34% set climate targets.
Special attention was given to social responsibility. As a result, 86% of companies described their approaches to employee development and rewards, while 34% disclosed data on efforts to ensure equal career opportunities. Additionally, 36% of the reports included the ratio of the average salary of women to men for each category of employees.
At the same time, ecology remains the least developed aspect, with the average score for this criterion not exceeding 5 points. This highlights the need to improve transparency in areas such as waste management, biodiversity issues and climate change adaptation.
