There has been a 100% increase in the number of S&P500 firms citing ESG in earnings calls in Q2, says Factset.

FactSet have searched for the term “ESG” in the conference call transcripts of all the S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings conference calls from June 15 through September 14. Of these companies, 24 cited the term “ESG” during their earnings calls.

Although this number is only 5% of the companies in the index, it is double the number of companies from Q1 and the highest number of companies going back two years. At the sector level, Financials had the highest number of companies discussing “ESG” on Q2 earnings calls of all 11 sectors. Real Estate had the largest increase in the number of companies citing “ESG” on earnings calls in Q2 relative to Q1.

Almost all the companies that discussed ESG on their earnings calls in Q2 either discussed their own corporate ESG initiatives and reporting or discussed ESG-related businesses, products, or services.