Getting the CSR message through!

I am pleased to make you aware of a first Communication on Progress published by the great CSR news distribution company CSRwire, LLC - whom most of you probably know via the News Alert which promptly plops into your inbox every morning with the latest CSR news and interesting editorials (haha, disclosure, some of them are mine!) . Anyway, if this plop thing doesn't happen to you, I would strongly recommend you sign up and get the News Alert. Whilst you are doing so, check out the rest of the site and see how CSRwire can help you get greater exposure for your CSR news and get your CSR message through! 

Anyhow, I digress.

What I really wanted to do was congratulate CSRwire on the submission of a first COP to the UN Global Compact. (oops, time for another disclosure, I worked with CSRwire and helped develop this COP).  

As most of you may know, the UNGC is a voluntary policy framework established 10 years ago by the UN to help drive responsible business practices according to 10 core pinciples. Businesses who wish to participate willl send a signed commitment to the effect that they will uphold the principles, spread the word around and report annually on what they have been doing in this respect. Over 5,000 businesses accross the world have committed to support this framework. A Communication on Progress is usually a positive document which doesn't require full disclosure in the same way as a comprehensive Sustainability Reoprt type GRI does, but it can contain considerable information and is an excellent route to supporting accountability and developing a culture of  transparency.

Accountability and transparency is not new to CSRwire as they are a certified B Corporation, and have been practising responsible business practices since the very start of their operation in 1999. However, the  CSRwire COP is a very full document, the most transparent ever published by CSRwire, and describes their business mission, profile, history, responsible practices, targets for the future and most importantly, the most material element of the company's work, the way CSRwire delivers and distributes CSR news so that the CSR message gets through to an increasingly wider range of readers all over the globe including corporate practitioners, CSR professionals, non-profits, academics, students and opinion leaders. With over 5,600 members and 250,000 page views per month, and growing, this is a strong reach. 

Also important is the fact that CSRwire is an SME, a small business with 12 employees. Even a small business can do their stuff responsibly,  and actually, it is vitally important that small businesses do do their stuff responsibly. The UNGC route is a great framework for smaller businesses to start building their Sustainability Stamina and gain global recognition. SME's who read CSRwire's COP can gain inspiration and ideas for how they might follow suit. I hope many do. See it on the UNGC website here.

Anyway, rushing off now to a Chunky Monkey event. YEAH!

elaine cohen, CSR consultant, Sustainabilty Reporter, HR Professional, Ice Cream Addict. Contact me via www.twitter.com/elainecohen  on Twitter or via my business website www.b-yond.biz/en  (BeyondBusiness, an inspired CSR consulting and Sustainability Reporting firm)

Softchoice - the different CSR report. Really!

Softchoice issued a "new style" CSR report. (which I picked up via Google Alert and a CSRWire.com  press release). Well, how many times have you heard that "new-style" thing before ? New, different, groundbreaking, unique, remarkable... how many Companies think they have produced something absolutely original when really its same sort of stuff with a picture of a different kid on the cover, or a few extra links, or an e-book which takes till 2050 to download ?  STOP. Softchoice has really done it ! Their report is really "new style" . It's really different from the pack.

It's part of a suite of what Softchoice calls their "Sustain-Enable" web-based report site. The site contains a downloadable interactive ebook style PDF in the style of a spiral notebook with handwritten graphics, sketches, photes, text and links. OK. So far so good. Also, the site contains several CSR themed vids which all look interesting, though the one that intrigued me was the one called the "Tie Jacket". Watch it here and see what it's all about:





What is also interesting on the Softchoice report site is their offering of tools for readers to reapply their own learnings and proceses. You can download templates for a Supplier Green Audit, a Travel Carbon calculator, a Commuter Survey Sample, or a Light Bulb Project Plan and more. In other words, not only are Softchoice reporting their progress, they are also sharing the way they did it. This is quite unusual for a CSR report. Some Companies share policies generously in their reporting, but I must say that I have not yet come accros a report that deliberately makes a conscious choice, perhaps we should call this a Softchoice, to share their tools and processes. CEO David MacDonald says the theme of the report is about "Sharing". Yep. They live up to that. Here is the way they do it:

A creative and engaging approach to reporting ! Learn from our pitfalls  - for example, make sure you consult with people in the business before shutting off their computer automatically to save power. Some people might have different needs. Low-hanging fruit - for example, make sure you know what your electronics recycler is doing with your assets. Some of the tips are modestly self-serving for example, a You can do it!  tip includes "When you place your next hardware order with Softchoice, make sure you ask for the consolidated shipment option" ! But, what the heck, they deserve a few extra orders for  sheer creativity!

The report is delightlfully full of the people who make CSR at Softchoice, even including a 4 year old bulldog who accompanies "Mom and Dad" to the office and a host of photos and vids of the Softchoice people.

The Report itself is a GRI C level, and reasonably comprehensive, and for a mid-sized business with under 1,000 employees,  its a major achievement. Their first report was pretty good, too!
Thumbs up to Softchoice! You can see they had a lot of fun writing this report! I bet they like Chunky Monkey as well.

elaine cohen is the CEO of Beyond Business, a leading social and environmental consulting and reporting firm. Visit our website at www.b-yond.biz/en

One for all and all for one ?

This week CSRWire published my editorial on the subject of integrated reporting. You can read it here. Thanks CSRWire!

Integrated reporting is a very interesting subject and one which usually polarizes opinions of experts. The book "One Report" by Eccles and Krzus, which  inspired me to write, is a strrong advocate for integrated reporting and even suggests that every company, public or private, everywhere, should be bound by legislation to produce an integrated financial and non-financial report. The authors' recommendations do not stretch as far as to suggest what level of detail of non-financial content should be published in these reports, and this is open for debate, but they do attempt to present what they call a "compelling case".

Except that I personally do not find it all that compelling. My piece in CSRWire explains why.

That's it. Short and sweet. Well, short.

elaine cohen is the CEO of Beyond Business, a leading social and environmental consulting and reporting firm. Visit our website at www.b-yond.biz/en