Still foot-dragging on reporting your company's financial risk from climate change? Your days are numbered, says Will Sarni.

Last September, two environmental groups and the financial officers of ten states and the city of New York asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to require companies to report on the impact of climate change risks to their financial performance. In addition, the Attorney General of New York State, Andrew M. Cuomo, initiated an investigation of five energy companies to determine if they adequately disclosed their financial risk from climate change. At the time, more than half of S&P 500 companies were not disclosing their risk from climate change, according to Mindy S. Lubber, president of the Ceres investor group.

What a difference a year makes.

Xcel, one of the largest builders of coal-fired power plants, has just struck a deal with Attorney General Cuomo to disclose its climate risk. It's a groundbreaking development – the deal marks the first time a major U.S. energy provider has been forced to disclose such information. But what's even more compelling here is the number of businesses that aren’t waiting around for the other shoe to drop. In fact, government regulations and shareholder resolutions that compel companies to address climate change are gradually being replaced by voluntary reporting of corporate climate risk.

From my experience this year, companies responded in a more detailed and substantive manner to the annual Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) questionnaire. Based upon the increased activity and the effort put into the responses, the CDP questionnaire no longer feels "voluntary."

I believe we are fast approaching the point where voluntary reporting of climate risk won’t earn companies any brownie points; instead, such reporting will be the price of admission for operating a successful business.

The Xcel deal, coupled with the increase in CDP participation, strongly indicates that companies must be prepared to quantitatively determine their risk from climate change and report this risk to stakeholders. It's unclear whether companies in other sectors will first feel the pinch from government regulators or forward-thinking competitors in the market. But one thing is for sure: Time is running out for those companies that are still dragging their feet.

One way or another, it's "publish or perish."

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Will Sarni is CEO of sustainability consulting firm DOMANI. He is also SLM's expert-in-residence on climate strategy and the host of Climate Management Weekly.