Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Best CG & ESG Awards HKICPA acknowledges the progress made in CG and ESG reporting, while urging companies to gear up for more extensive climate-related disclosures

27 October 2025

Institute Advocacy Standards & Regulation

The Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants (HKICPA) announced the result of the Best Corporate Governance and ESG Awards 2025 today. With the assistance of artificial intelligence (AI) in the initial screening process for the first time, the Awards continued to establish benchmarks for Corporate Governance (CG) and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) best practices in Hong Kong.

The Awards’ Judging Panel is pleased to announce a record total of 39 awards for listed companies and public sector organizations (PSOs) this year, including nine first-time awardees (and two new Most Sustainable Organization Awards (MSO) winners, the top accolades in the competition), reflecting the ongoing commitment of listed companies and public bodies to enhancing their CG and ESG standards and embedding good practices into their values, strategies and operations.

For the Awards this year, AI was used for the first time to help screen over 680 annual and ESG reports from listed companies, enabling a faster and more objective initial review. Besides, an “Elite Past Winners” section was created to enable Awards frequent winners compete with their peers, while the “newly-listed companies” category highlighted the importance of strong governance and ESG practices from the start.

Edward Au, President of the HKICPA and Chair of the judging panel of the Best Corporate Governance and ESG Awards 2025, said, "With the support from AI and the awards re-categorizations, this year’s Awards promote a more balanced competition, recognize emerging leaders, and push all companies and public sector organizations to integrate both corporate governance and ESG into their culture and strategies.”

Commenting on the CG and ESG developments, Edward Au continued, “With the backdrop of recent revisions to the CG Code and ESG Reporting Code under the Listing Rules, additional impetus will be given to companies to provide more extensive, substantive, and integrated information for investors and stakeholders. Furthermore, we expect that the gradual implementation of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB)’s sustainability disclosure standards, and local Hong Kong standards issued by the HKICPA, will further enhance the scope and quality of sustainability reporting in terms of transparency, comparability and credibility. Meanwhile, the HKICPA will continue to champion good CG and ESG practices and reporting.”

25 years of achievements in promoting CG and ESG

As it celebrates the 25th anniversary of the Awards, the HKICPA has witnessed significant developments in the breadth and depth of CG practices and reporting by listed companies and public bodies in Hong Kong.

Edward Au added, “We have witnessed companies’ and organizations’ boards becoming more independent and diverse, with stronger committee structures, greater transparency and accountability in many areas. This has resulted in the emergence of greater corporate resilience and the setting of new benchmarks of best practices in Hong Kong and the region.”

Corporate Governance

Loren Tang, Chair of the Awards’ Organizing Committee, said, “We are very pleased to see numbers of new awardees this year whose CG practices have achieved a high standard. This indicates that more companies are recognizing the importance of sound governance to their long-term sustainability. Their more extensive and transparent disclosure of key risks and mitigation measures taken to address them, for example, demonstrates a commitment to robust governance, which is especially important in today’s uncertain economic environment.”

The Judging Panel also pointed to areas where practices could still be enhanced, as indicated below.

Further modernization of board structure

Ongoing modernization of board structures in family businesses should be in place to demonstrate clear succession planning and trust in the roles of INEDs, as a counterweight to the dominant influence of executives or insiders serving as board chairs. Besides, there should be more specific disclosures about INEDs’ other time commitments and of action proposed to address the issue of long-serving directors of a high average age. Organizations should also consider setting targets for enhancing board diversity in terms of gender, age, experience and background.

Further disclosures on risk management, internal control and financial performance

CG disclosures should be further improved with more detailed information on risk management and internal control reviews. To enhance transparency for stakeholders, there should be better explanations for year-to-year variations in financial performance, especially for PSOs.

Appointment transparency for PSO board members

The selection and appointment process for board members in PSOs would benefit from greater transparency and a more rigorous nomination process, to ensure INEDs can bring the right skills, diversity, and commitment to their role. Moreover it will strengthen accountability and confidence in public sector CG to better serve the interests of their stakeholders.

ESG

Patrick Rozario, Chair of the Awards’ Review Panel, stated, “The awardees’ best ESG practices included demonstrating strong ESG leadership, with clear governance structures at the board and senior management levels, and a commitment to integrating ESG considerations into all major operations and decision-making processes. They are adopting international benchmarks, which may include, for example, validation by the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi), and are providing a range of clear key performance indicators, while assessing the impact of ESG issues that are material both internally on the company and externally on the wider society.”

As ESG has become one of the top priorities for organizations, driven by regulatory demands and growing demands from investors and the public, the Judging Panel has made a number of recommendations for better ESG practices and reporting, as further explained below:

To establish clear interim ESG targets

Companies are encouraged to set clear and measurable a carbon neutrality/ net zero goal and interim targets to track progress toward that goal. Without measurable interim targets, there could be a risk of long-term ESG objectives being seen as a kind of “greenwashing”, as stakeholders cannot assess whether companies are genuinely on track to achieve those long-term targets.

More details on Scope 3 emissions disclosures

Companies’ Scope 3 GHG emissions disclosures often lack detail. With changes to the ESG Reporting Code that reference the ISSB Standards S2 / HKSDS S2, Climate-related Disclosures, coming into effect, companies will need to gear up to improve data collection and transparency around their Scope 3 emissions in the coming years. Enhanced reporting in this area will help stakeholders better understand both the challenges and the company’s commitment to addressing climate change.

Brief study on GHG emissions reporting by large-cap companies

To evaluate the preparedness of listed companies for changes in the ESG Reporting Code and the application of ISSB Standards and HKSDS, the HKICPA conducted a brief study on aspects of the climate-related reporting among the 105 constituent companies of the Hang Seng Composite LargeCap Index and the commitment of companies to contributing to the Hong Kong and Mainland Governments’ carbon neutrality goals.

The findings of the study, which covered 2024/25 reports, revealed that 66% of surveyed companies reported Scope 3 emissions to some extent. This compares with only 50% in HKEX’s analysis of 2023/24 reporting¹, indicating that more large companies are gearing up for the coming regulatory changes. Meanwhile business travel, purchased goods and services, and waste generated in operations are the most common disclosures. While over 60% of surveyed companies (62%) have set carbon neutrality or net-zero targets, only 27% included comprehensive Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions in their goals. While 66% of companies obtained external assurance for their emissions data (compared with 41% of large cap companies with ESG assurance in the HKICPA’s 2023 study²), only 25% of these obtained assurance for their Scope 3 emission reporting.

Based on the study, the HKICPA recommends that companies commit to expanding their climate targets to fully include Scope 3 emissions, provide clear explanations and justifications for their selection of baseline years for comparing GHG emission reductions, and consider seeking external validation through recognized frameworks (such as the SBTi) and obtaining independent external assurance. They should fix a target date for achieving carbon neutrality/ net zero emissions and set out a clear pathway towards meeting relevant interim targets.

The HKICPA also believes that enhanced transparency and independent assurance for sustainability related data are important for building credibility and supporting Hong Kong’s leadership in sustainable business practices.

The HKICPA was pleased to receive financial sponsorship for this year’s Awards from prominent CPA and other professional consultancy firms (see Note 1) and receive AI technical support (see Note 2). The HKICPA would like to express its appreciation for their support and that of the Awards’ media sponsors (see Note 3).

For the full judges report of the HKICPA Best Corporate Governance & ESG Awards 2025 and the full report of the study on climate change-related reporting by Hang Seng Composite LargeCap Index constituent companies, please obtain the reports by scanning the QR code below:

Judges Report