is sex a renewable resource ?

i stumbled upon an interesting aspect of sustainability - an aspect about which i have not yet found a sustainability report that offers a comprehensive transparent disclosure (exposure?) of this sector. Yes, you guessed : sustainable love... sustainable sex ..." a green philosophy of relationships which teaches the importance of valuing the renewable resources of love and family" quoted from www.goodcleanlove.com, Wendy Strgar's company site, marketing sex aids and accessories including personal lubricants, massage and pleasure objects, love flower perfumes, body desserts and more ..

Love and family ... renewable resources, eh ? Wonder how much love and family it would take to operate a power plant. Or fuel a train from New York to Las Vegas . Well, if all it takes to save the planet is lots and lots of sex, using parabens-free lubricants and environmentally packaged vibrators, then why isnt everyone doing it ? (or maybe everybody IS and i just caught on a little late...)(as usual) :((

Taking a deeper look, or to put it another way, penetrating harder, into Wendy's love nest, i discovered that "Good Clean Love is an approved Coop America Green Company" (green sex? has a kinda orgasmic ring to it, doesnt it ?), and that "by helping women to create and sustain strong families, we make the world a more loving place. " Great, Wendy is a feminist as well as a "loveologist". Wendy replaces the use of petrochemical and parabens in intimacy products, turning love-making into a truly sustainable experience (and you all thought that Viagra was the only solution).

I thought i had just better check that there wasnt actually a sustainability report in the sex sector, so i did a quick search for sex on www.corporateregister.com and to my dismay all i came up with was Wessex Water plc and West Sussex County Council. Oh well, good to know that there is some element of reporting that comes close to containing sex.

Actually, i came to this sustainability revelation when my daily Google Alert threw up an interesting headling referring me to Andy Krolls piece on fox news dot com. He takes us on a tour of eco-friendly biodegradable condoms, solar powered vibrators and organic lubricants. Though he does recommend safety over sustainability when it comes to natural lambskin condoms. He didnt mention if he was talking from experience.

I wonder why GoodCleanLove has not yet produced a sustainability report. Perhaps just a little more renewable love is needed to fuel that process ? The positive impacts of sex appear to be clear. Wendy writes in Green Girls Global blog: "Hundreds of major medical studies have shown that an active sex life leads to a longer life, better heart health, a healthier immune response, reduction in chronic pain symptoms, lower rates of depression and even protection against some cancers. " Plenty of materiality and positive indirect impacts to report on here. And it is heartening to know that all i have to do to stay healthy is never get out of bed.

Now dont be sceptical. I mean, take Good Clean Love's New Cocoa Mint Body Dessert-smooth and creamy, all natural and organic butters and oils blended with organic Egyptian cocoa. Low calorie, too, apparently. I wonder how many kilos of that you can consume during a quickie before the kids get home ?

I couldnt leave the GLC site without a quick look at the number one selling sex-aid - the v-i-b-r-a-t--o-r. I discovered an amazing array of ergonomically designed shapes, some of which you can even plug into your ipod for the ultimate ergonomusical erotic experience. I wonder if they run on rechargeable bateries? Or are they powered by OTC lubes because "everything works better when it is well oiled".

So come on, GoodCleanLove... put your money where your passion candles are and lets see that first sustainability report. We are looking for a model of transparency. Or to use the professional jargon, bare all!


elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !Technorati Profile

Cuppa, anyone ?

I just returned from a vacation in north Manchester, where i grew up. Aside from my family, and Coronation Street (there are some that would say there is a resemblance :)), there are only two things i miss and which are unavailable in Israel. Bisto and Tetley tea. You just can't get a great cuppa in Israel. So, as i enjoy sipping my round-bag Tetley, the nostalgic taste of my adolescence, i wondered about the reporting practices of this iconic brand. Tetley is number one in the UK and Canada, number two in Australia and three in the US. So i am in good tea-sipping company.

The Tetley.co.uk site is not terribly revealing BUT i note that Teltey tea is ethically traded. "Growing and producing tea provides a livelihood for millions of people around the world. Assuring their living and working conditions is very important to us, and we manage this through our membership of a growing international organisation called the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP). This is a non commercial alliance of 18 international tea packers who believe in a shared responsibility for the social and ethical conditions involved in the sourcing of tea." Other than this positive revelation, the 2 pager on corporate information - the media pack - contains a page on ethical, environmental and social impacts. Wonder why they think only the press would be interested in this ? But no CSR report. What a disappointment.

However, another revelation, at the bottom of the website there is a tag: A TATA Enterprise.

Aha! So, Tetley's belongs to Tata.

So by now you know that i dont like to leave my tea-bags hanging in mid-air, so i take a trip to CorporateRegister.com where i find Tata Tea's 2007-2008 Tata Tea Sustainability Report. I am impressed with the references to "holistic" management and "social awakening" - tea is really quite a spiritual thing, apparently. "In an attempt to migrate the Tata Tea brand medium of physical and emotional rejuvenation to a platform of intellectual and social awakening", Tata launched an award winning social marketing campaign. I am very gratified. Now i can not only enjoy my ethical cuppa, but i can be rejuvenated as well. Though organic instant tea isnt really my cup of tea. (Yes, that was a pun). Tata Tea is a Global Compact signatory, which is positive, and 100% of instant tea waste goes to the biofuel gasifier, which produces 200 tons of steam power per day to run the plants. A 54 page report written along GRI guidelines with an index and a UNGC index, this is a nice report and presents a credible picture of the way Tata and Tetley make my cuppa. Tata Group is a massive enterprise, in diverse sectors, turning over around $62 billion and employing around 350,000 people. So to have a focused report on their tea business is quite a refreshing surprise. Quite rejuvenating.

Makes me wonder about Tata-Tetley's indirect impacts - I mean - what do people do with tea-bags AFTER use ? How do Tata-Tetley influence consumer behaviour to manage tea-bag waste ecologically ? This site has some answers. Including soothing your eyes, curing your warts, scenting your drawers, mainating your meat, cleaning your mirrors and removing old polish from wood furniture. Removing old polish ? Oy, what is it doing to my intestines ?

Bisto (aaaaaaaaaaaah Bisto!. Remember those great TV ads ?), is less transparent but . Owned by Premier Foods, the CSR report is a 4 pager covering the headlines - Ethical Trading Initiative, WRAP for reduction of packaging weights, governance, employee practices, and adherence to the Five-Fold Environmental Ambition of the Food and Drink Federation. Good stuff on the whole. I am not tempted to think about what you can do with unused gravy, but Bisto makers could go that extra drop to make their sustainability a little more transparent.

Anyway, now that i am back home, awakened and rejuvenated, no warts, clean mirrors, depolished intestines and with full ethical gravy availability, i am glad that my nostalgic shopping spree was highly sustainable. Now, where did i put that used tea bag ..........

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

how many people does it take to write 19 winning reports ?

CorporateRegister.com has just published the results of the second global on-line reporting competition – CRReportingAwards08. Vodafone picked up THREE awards – "best overall report", "best credibility through assurance" and "best relevance and materiality". I guess this does prove the point that long reports win awards. 377 pages of CSR. This is the second year for Vodafone as top reporter. They deserve it. As far as I can remember, I voted for them too!

Anyway, I did a quick analysis:

• 9 categories, 3 awards per category = 27 awards
• 27 awards went to 19 reports. Vodafone, BP and Shell each took three awards, Coca Cola and Bayer each took two awards.
• 2,111 pages of reporting is the sum of the 19 winning reports. The top nine first place reports weighed in with 818 pages = 38% of all the reporting pages in the winning reports. Average report length 111 pages.
• 16 of the 19 reports are based on the GRI reporting framework = 84%
• 8 reports are GRI A+, 3 are B or B+, 1 is C and 4 undeclared levels.
• 8 reports were application level checked by the GRI
• 10 reports are assured = 53% of the number of winning reports
• USA wins the race with 6 reports, UK next with 5, Germany 3, Denmark 2, Spain , France and Australia 1 report each.
• With the exception of the winner in the Best First Report category, only one other first place winner was a first report. All the others were third, seventh, ninth or fourteenth reporting cycles.

Based on the above analysis, I reckon that if you entered your 15th, 112- pages-long, A+ GRI checked report in USA English in every category, you had about the same chance as everybody else of getting an award. Basically, this indicates credibility in the voting process, given the range of different and varied winning reports, from different types of companies in different sectors, reporting at different levels of transparency and assurance, with different reporting styles and length. All that number-crunching just to confirm what we knew already! I eagerly await the CorporateRegister.com report for an analysis of the voting and trends.

I wonder how many reporting , consulting, editing, designing, and translating hours went into writing these winning reports. Let's assume a modest average of 1,500 hours for each report. This is roughly the equivalent of employing 12.8 people for a full year. Or one person for 12.8 years. Around half a million $ of shareholder money. Doesn’t seem all that much for 19 companies, right? Wonder what the ROI in business benefit on reputation, employee recruitment and retention, risk management, stakeholder relations would be for these 19 businesses? Guess if I could answer that question, I could claim a commission on the half a million $, right? (45% would be ok, I am not greedy).

Finally, if all of these Companies decide not to report in 2009 as a result of the financial crisis, we can expect :

• global unemployment figures to increase by 12.8 people
• $500m additional shareholder dividend payout
• plummeting sales of paracetamol, a well known pain-reliever for reporting freaks
• consumer confusion as they don’t know who are the most ethical companies to buy from
• car-park sales of CSR office furniture all over the world
• 5,251 other potential reporting companies who now see their chance at winning the 2009 award

So, all you winners, very well done. Congratulations !

Please keep reporting. It's the sustainable thing to do.

elaine

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

Reporting at the (all) top

Congratulations to csr-reporting-blog - and thank you to Alltop - as csr reporting now appears in the prestigious comprehensive totally cool and collective Alltop page on Corporate Responsibility. You have to scroll right down to bottom right, but it's there. Alltop have done us csr fanatics a great service by gathering everthing that's anything relating to CSR and putting it all one one page. This is a great service to environmental sustainability. Think of how much energy and saved clicks we accrue by not having to search the entire web everytime we want to know what's hot! I am sure my ecological footprint is now much smaller.

I thought i would take this opportunity to examine the unique relevance of the reporting blog to the rest of the news that appears on the Alltop CR page.

Well, right at the top of the Alltop we have Google's Corporate Responsibility News. This is a collection of everything that googles its way into our consciousness and the second item as I check the link is the press release about the issue of ConAgra's social responsibility report which you can find here . This is a FIRST report, I LOVE first reports, I will review it SOON on CorporateRegister.com, no doubt.It's a GRI self-seclared B - hmm, can't wait.

Then we have the brilliant Mallen Baker's feed from his brand new website, Business Respect. Mallen himself deserves a lot of respect as he is usually first with insightful news, clever in his analyses and often rather provocative. Yes, even CSR people can be provocative. The first Alltopped item is the French Government's ban on Bank bonuses. Whilst it may be true that high executive salaries may not have been the primary cause of the financial crisis, I often wonder why executives are felt to deserve remuneration at the level of millions of $$$ per year.

CSRwire.com, a leading veteran csr news site comes next, with a first story about awards made to Vermont organic farmers. You can read about rotationally-grazed pasture, a singular river crossover, an impaired watershed, sensory evaluation of milk and new organic Vermont cheddar cheese . If nothing else, you can expand your vocabulary. Though that cheddar does sound mouthwatering, even if it is organic. Well done to Vermont.

Finally, the best of the rest include blogs from some impressive contributors such as Wayne Visser on CSRInternational, Joel Makower, Fabian Pattberg, the DevelopmentCrossing forum and the World Bank Blog, as well as news feeds from other reputable sites such as CorpWatch, Greenbiz and BITC. I have purposely left out the hyperlinks so you can go to Alltop and get there yourself. What, you think i am gonna do ALL the work ?

However, I am gratified to say that my analysis proves without a doubt that the csr-reporting blog has UNIQUE relevance as it is the only content which is solely devoted to REPORTING, analysis of REPORTS, challenges to REPORTING methods and insights about REPORTERS.

Well, most of it. Except this post, maybe .....


elaine
elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

the self declared thing - hit and miss ?

So I decided to check out this self-declared thing.

The GRI has a check facility whereby any report can obtain an official confirmation that the report meets the designated application level. To me, it seems a shame to go to all the trouble of writing a report and then not having it subjected to a formal check. There is nothing more satisfying (except Chunky Monkey on a warm day) than getting that mail from the GRI which says "CONGRATULATIONS …With this e-mail I would like to provide you with the final results of GRI's Application Level check of TheTotally Amazing* Company’s report. We have checked this report against the criteria for the GRI Application Level …(+) and GRI has qualified your report as Application Level …(+). "

The Global Reporting Initiative keeps a record of sustainabilty reports which refer to the GRI guidelines. When I last checked sometime in March, 102 reports published in 2009 were logged. Of these, 54 are self declared, which means they didn’t go for the formal check. Of these 54:

• 21 at level C
• 3 at Level C+
• 15 at Level B
• 4 at Level B+
• 6 at Level A
• 4 at Level A+

and one hanger on who didn’t self declare but forgot to say at what level. The self declarers cut across all sectors and many countries. So it's not a culture thing, right?

As you can see, by doing a quick minor first grade calculation, 44 % of self-declarers report at the lowest possible level – C. Now, frankly, my view of Level C is that it is potentially barely more than a marketing brochure. So I decided to delve. I am good at delving. I think it's because I was forbidden cookies and candies in my childhood.

First stop: Wachovia 2007 report
http://www.corporateregister.com/a10723/wach07-csr-usa.pdf
What a surprise. It’s a first report. Love first reports. Guess it’s the last as well, as Wachovia is now part of Wells Fargo. There is a GRI index: interestingly the reporter has selected to respond to a number of Financial Supplement Indicators but only 7 of the core GRI indicators. And no Economic Indicators. The one LA indicator reported is LA 11: Programs for skills management and lifelong learning that support the continued employability of employees and assist them in managing career endings. This is well reported with the “Employee Driven, Manager Supported, Wachovia Enabled” program (try saying that when you are drunk) which led to 43% of vacancies being filled by an internal candidate. Nice stuff. EN3 is reported: Direct energy consumption by primary energy source. Good data over 3 years (never mind that there are significant unexplained increases in all energy consumption and CO2 emissions - it meets the reporting requirement). Wachovia reports on 7 GRI G3 indicators and another 6 from the financial supplement. But this really shouldn’t be a C report. It doesn’t meet all the criteria.

Second stop: Altron 2008 Sustainability report
http://www.altron.co.za/annual2008/pdf/sustainabilityComplete.pdf
75 page report called One group One goal. It's part of an integrated report. Altron say they report on 11 indicators. But I find that taken as a whole, the report is quite comprehensive. A self-declared C is way below this report's actual level.

Third stop.Robert Bosch 2007/8 Report
http://www.corporateregister.com/a10723/bosch0708-sus-gr.pdf
Bosch reported on a whole 35 indicators – way beyond what is needed for Level C. It could even be a level B. This is actually a well thought-through report focusing on material issues. Why self-declare? Why not go for the GRI check? Or assurance?

Two out of three self-declared C reports go beyond the reporting requirements. One doesn’t meet the reporting requirements. This may not be a representative sample, but it sounds like pretty much hit and miss to me.

Don't get me wrong. I don’t have shares in the GRI. But I do believe that a third party confirmation assists in making a correct assessment of the reporting level and adds credibility to the report. If you are going to refer the GRI, then why not do it in a serious way? Why not claim the credit you deserve if your report meets a higher level of transparency? And more importantly, is the GRI achieving it's objective when reporters quote the framework but ignore (abuse?) the guidelines ?

My advice to reporters: get your level checked. My offer to reporters: I'll be happy to oblige.
(I am allowed to make a mild marketing plug on my very own blog, right ?)

* The Totally Amazing Company is totally fictitious. I googled it. The nearest I got was an album by Englbert Humperdink. which probably wasn't all that totally amazing.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

And another song for sustainability...

After my last post, songs seem to be popping up everywhere .. I was reviewing Marks and Spencer's partnership with Oxfam which has raised one million pounds in a return clothes program, and came accross the Godwin School choir's song about eliminating plastic bags.
http://plana.marksandspencer.com/we-are-doing/waste/stories/39/
Small actions lead to big changes, and Marks and Spencer feature a song the kids wrote and perform relating to the evils of plastic bags. Nice, creative, fun sustainability and corporate responsibility.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

Sing Sustainability .....

You can't help but smile at this .... I was happily working through my next report review of Henkel's 2008 Sustainability Report and as usual, I toggle back and forth between the PDF and the website .. and i just happen to stumble accross the Henkel Song.
It's called We Together, and the lyrics go like this :

We together all together
Let our visions and our values lead the way
We together all together
That's why the Henkel name will always stay
From beginning to end A Brand like a Friend

It's downloadable in several languages and mixes on the Henkel site. Now, it's a really great song. Quite catchy, actually. Wonder if they ever though of entering it in the Eurovision. I am sure even Elvis Presley would have been happy to add it to his repertoire.. I mean, Jailhouse Rock it isn't, but it's really not bad. In fact, I was so enthralled with the thought of 55,000 Henkel employees warbling this song at every budget planing session and management training meeting that i just couldnt resist listening to the Japanese version (domo arigato yeah yeah), and the US country version ( eat ya heart out Hank Williams) and well, what the heck, i went though Turkish, German, Ukranian, Hungarian, Mexican, Arabic and orchestral ( country: Philharmonia). After all this, i can now sing the entire song in a perfect mixture of multinational lyrics, with a Manchester accent. So what if i am a little out of tune. Wonder when the Hebrew version will top the charts .....

You might be asking yourselves why i am so taken with this. First, you should understand that my life motto is: one who wishes to sing will always find a song. So you could say that the Henkel song struck a chord with me (cringe). Second, it did get me wondering how this song is used at Henkel and if it supports a sense of togetherness and community within the business. Itreminds me that during my time as VP for Human Resources at Unilever in Israel, we often used the song Proud by Heather Small, which was used by Unilever globally, if i am not mistaken, in a diversity roll-out program. That's a great song - recommend you hear it if you dont know it. It was always good way to set the mood for deeper discussions and created a kind of familiarity and sense of common spirit. I wonder how many other corporations have songs.

• AIG: Yesterday...
• Citibank: Money Money Money makes the world go around ....
• Wal Mart: We are the world
• Diageo: Message in a bottle
• Mattel: Rag Doll
• Adidas: Run chicken run
• Patagonia: aint no mountain high enough

Enough of that .....Henkel, thank you for this sprinkle of melodic inspiration ...... better get back to that report review now ..... la la la doo be doo la la la ...

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

I have now joined the future

Guess what ! I have now officially become a member of the future.
I participated yesterday in what was for me a very futuristic experience - yes - you guessed .. a WEBINAR!! I like to think i am a computer-literate techie sort of person, but to date, I have resisted all these millions of webinars and things, mainly because of the hassle factor (getting hooked up), the earphones factor (flat ears) , the poor connection factor (crackles, buzzes and beeps) and the half-sentence factor ( hello, welcome to.................. today............will discuss .................important to note that ....................very significant as you can see on slide 3 that....................) . But the temptation of hearing code-guru Deborah Leipziger was too great to resist. So, albeit a little late (10 yr old daughter needed mom to buy her hundreds of $$$$$ of clothes for her birthday party at the weekend), I accepted the CSR International invitation to join the first in the impressive line-up of webinar events scheduled until the end of 2009 (this is great forward planning - unlike my local culture where planning more than 3 hours ahead causes chronic migraine)

Deborah Leipziger is the first lady of corporate, industry and cause-related codes of conduct and ethical standards. Her Code Book created order and understanding of the relevance and importance of framing conduct expectations and existing best practices. A sort of Code Bible. Amen.

How is this connected to Reporting ?
No CSR report today is complete without reference to a Code of Conduct and in many cases, declaration of a string of external codes that the corporation adopts. My guess is that on average, companies have about 5 or more different codes they try to observe in their businesses.
A quick look at some CSR reports proves me mainly right:

• ExxonMobil 2007: corporate code(s) of conduct , global responsible care charter, global compact, voluntary Principles on Security and human Rights, millenium development goals, ILO convention on Indigenous peoples
• Westpac Banking Corp 2008 : UNPRI, principles for doing business, Equator Principles, ASX principles on Good Corporate Governance, sustainable supply chain managment code of conduct, GRI, UNEP Finance Initiative, CEO Water Mandate
• Sony 2008: Sony Group code of conduct, EICC code of conduct (only 2 ? did i miss a few?)
• Diageo 2008: Global compact, Dublin Principles, Business charter for sustainable development, CEO Water Mandate, internal codes of ethics, GRI

The harmonization of codes was one point raised in the discussion - though a key part of the value of the Code is the process by which it was created. So maybe we need lots of processes but less codes ?

Anyway, back to the view from the top - few insights from the guru:

• ISO 26000 is not cutting-edge but it is broad and covers most of the range of CSR issues . It is right to go the guideline route and not the certification route, though certification at a national level in local language could be an opportunity. Some national certification bodies are already starting to consider its use - Portugal and Denmark for instance.
• Sectorialization is becoming more popular and useful as a tool for different industries such as the electronics industry, automotives, forestry, financial sector tools such as the Equator Principles.
• Training is essential to ensure application and assimilation of codes - this is often underestimated
• Impact analysis including gathering of base line data is often overlooked but is an important tool in understanding both the effectiveness of the code and the unintended consequences of implementation.

In response to my question, What about a code of conduct for CSR professionals or are we exempt? there was a knowing smile and an admission that the cobbler forgot to make himself a pair of shoes, or whatever the saying is. There was the question of how do you define a CSR professional . Right now, as long as its polite, I dont mind. :-)

Anyway, i have to end this blog post now as i have to go off and write another code....

Thanks to Deborah and to Wayne Wisser, CSRI founder and webinar maestro

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

What does transparency have to do with Blushing Apples ?

Quiz Number 1
What is an Apple Cinnamon scented candle made of ?

1. Apples and Cinnamon
2. Parrafin Wax, Stabilizer, Dye, Fragrance
3. All of the above
4. None of the above

Answer : here

Yes, a superb new website from SC Johnson called What's inside discloses the ins and outs (well, mostly ins) of the contents of all of their homecare products, with plain language explanations for the uninitiated (I did a semester of Chemistry at Open University, once, so of course it's all perfectly clear to me).

Quiz number 2:

What is Benzisothiazolinone?

1. An antibiotic for people suffering from fear of long words
2. An exotic vacation resort in Southern Argentina
3. A preservative that protects a product against microbial growth, to maintain product performance
4. An addictive beverage that enhances immortality

Answer: here

Quiz number 3:

What on earth is this quiz all about?

1. Elaine is bored
2. You are bored
3. Blogging is boring
4. The fact that SC Johnson has created a super website where everyone can take an interest in the ingredients that go into the household products we use evey day in our homes, and make considered consumer choices about what to purchase and what not. This represents a major step forward in transparency and I hope that consumers will reward SC Jonson with their purchasing power, and demand that other manufacturers do the same.

Answer : hint: not 1,2 or 3

So thumbs up to SCJ. Remains only for them to include more details on this website of their policies for responsible sourcing of all these ingredients and associated packaging components.

And a final quiz:

The final quiz:

Was this post of interest ?

1. Absolutely
2. Absolutely
3. Absolutely
4. Absolutely

elaine

PS: top marks to SCJ for a bold approach. I guess when you can name a candle Creamy Custard and Blushing Apple Candle, anything's possible. At least if it doesnt light up the room you can serve it on a plate with Apple Pie and hope for a new gourmet experience.

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

irregulate and unintegrate - i think i am a minority

I came across this article in Ethical Corporation which is a commentary on the recent Danish law to require reporting of non-financials by 1,000 Danish Companies. There are two interesting points discussed in the article:

• Integrated reporting or separate reporting
• Regulated reporting or voluntary reporting

One by one. OK?

Integrate or separate ?

There are many reasons for integrated reporting:

• all stakeholders see the whole picture
• demonstrates total strategic adoption of CSR practices
• elevates CSR practices to lhighly developed level of financial practices
• all reporting processes are aligned and more efficient
• create greater reporting discipline
• results in a more compact and coordinated report (1+1 = <2)(thats>

There are many reasons against integrated reporting

• the opposite of all the above (that was easy enough)
• the audiences are different
• CSR gets overshadowed by the financials
• the nature of CSR reporting doesnt fit well with financial reporting - they are fundamentally different
• the financial reporting cycle is highly sensitive and subject to many different regulatory pressures - aligning CSR with these reduces flexibility for CSR reporting

And the winner is :...................

Well, there is no winner, There are just thoughts and preferences. After reviewing the Novo Nordisk integrated report for 2008, i was left with the feeling that integration is a tough task, adn that non-financials certainly lose out. NN have been doing the integration thing for quite some time and are ackowledged at the leaders in this approach. I am not interested in the detailed financial data, top and bottom line is enough for me. With a little in between. But i am highly interested in everything that relates to the way they get to the top and bottom line. I wonder how many non-financial-geeks really take interest in the streams of numbers and tables. Bores me silly. Maybe that's why am not a millionaire :((. My conclusion: Integrated reporting may have relevance for investors and analysists. I suspect all other stakeholders would regard 90% of the financials as about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

Regulate or irregulate

This is more interesting. The article mentioned above shows the levels of regulation in all of 9 countries - flimsy to say the least.

Reasons to regulate:

• make it happen - still many companies voluntarily do not report
• ensure controls in place
• reporting is a catalyst for action - if you have to report, you have to do something first (in theory)
• level the playing field for the "license to operate"- raise the bar

Reasons not to regulate:

• regulation may create the lowest common demoninator of reporting - meet the requirement but no more - kinda remove the competitive punch in today's voluntary reporting
• regulation will require enforcement - could lead to an army of administrators checking for CSR content at best, or at worst, non enforcement
• CSR is so broad that regulation has to be either very detailed or absolutely minimal - so whats the point ?
• forcing CSR into too prescriptive a regulatory mold could dampen the amazing creativity we see in the ways Company's express their CSR approach

And the winner is ..............................

Well, there is no winner. Haha. you guessed that, right ? Here, my view is somewhere in the middle. Sort of upper middle. High upper middle. CSR reporting should be supported by incentives, which are a part of regulation. Some metrics should absolutely be regulated. Businesses showing transparency should get encouragement . I am in favor of a level of regulation, but not to such an extent that the soul of CSR is destroyed.

So, a reasonably irregulated unintegrated approach appears to have a mild advantage over other options. Or am i just being negative? I can live with regulation and integration. As long as we remember that before we can produce regulated, non-regulated, integrated, unintegrated, any-ated type of report, we must see csr progress being made in the business. Maybe we ought to regulate for DOING as well as REPORTING ? Oops, now that's a tall order ....

elaine

elaine cohen is the joint CEO of BeyondBusiness, a leading reporting and social-environmental consulting firm based in Israel. Visit our website at: www.b-yond.biz !

New study on sustainability reporting

For those of you who spend their lives reading sustainability reports (ok, dont all shout at once), Ernst and Young have just published a study surveying 100 reports coming out of 15 countries mainly in Europe in 2007 (up to 31.3.08). 35 pages all about reporting, isnt that neat ? You can read the report here. The report addresses the quality of sustainability reporting and makes recommendations to do it better. The quality is assessed against 5 criteria;

• stakeholder management
• balance (positive / negative reporting)
• comparability (trending)
• readability
• reliability
• disclosure on management approach

Bottom line: reports need to be more focused. Less shopping list and more of what matters.

Ok. That's it.

Well, not yet. You know me ... can't help but comment ....so for all you busy people who dont want to read the entire thing, here are some subjectively selected highlights:

• 44% of reports are longer than 75 pages - which plays to a point made by Mallen Baker that longer is apparently better ! Mallen you are vindicated.
• 81% of reporters use the GRI framework - i like this of course - i believe the GRI framework is the best existing framework for reporting, not perfect maybe (!) but the best ... 81% is a higher number than usually quoted
• 76% of reports contain mainly positive data with hardly any negative disclosures - aha! now it's in black and white. Reporting is still seen as a good news exercise. Paradoxically, the more the good news, the less the credibility. Wonder why companies dont get this.
• 47% of reports include descriptions of stakeholder dialogue by stakeholder group. Stakeholder dialogue is a core concept of sustainability. Over half the reporters therefore are not addressing this in a comprehensive way. Interesting, really. I think the issue of dialogue is one of the most significant barriers to achieving true sustainability. businesses are afraid of dialogue. Dialogue is the route to true accountability. However, 47% is in the right direction.
• On a similar track, only 36% of reports include or discuss stakeholder criticisms. There was even one company who reported that all the stakeholders had absolutely no criticsm. Wow. Isnt that neat ? Bet their CEO is paid a whopping bonus ...
• 67% of reports include data which is comparable to previous years. This is an important point. one of the core issues i find in reports is that data is often in a vacuum. Lack of context. Dumping a load of figures in a table is not reporting. It's dumping. Guess that's obvious, right ? 67% is higher than i would have expected.

there is lots more interesting data in this report, which is a good comprehensive review. Well done to E&Y.

I guess what i miss is the core issue of materiality. Surely one of the criteria for assessing a sustainability report is whether there is an analysis of material issues and a discussion of them, particlurlarly sector-relevant materiality issues. One of the first things I look for is a list of material issues or a materiality matrix. Maybe i am just too demanding ...

Anyway, thanks to E&Y for providing me with a blog post this week. Wonder if they can do a survey next week too ?

Content, Communications, Credibility

These are the key elements to watch for as you read a Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility Report, or Sustainability Report, or CSR Report, or CR Report, or .. well, you get the picture.

Without wishing to blow my own trumpet and with due modesty, I am proud to announce the appearance of a number of report EXPERT REVIEWS of reports , penned (ok, typed) by myself on CorporateRegister.com, the leading report-hosting and CSR site in the WORLD. Thank you to CorporateRegister.com for adding this feature, which i find quite fascinating. Wonder why ?

The site adds a new Expert Review feature which you can see here , listing all reviews and links back to the reports hosted on the site.

The first reviews to appear are:

• Danske Bank 2008
• Novo Nordisk 2008
• Kellogg 2008
• Westpac Banking Corp 2008
• Cisco 2008
• Deutsche Telekom 2008
• Allianz SE 2008
• LexisNexis 2007
• imc2

Watch this space as we review more reports .... i wont delay in keeping you all posted !!!

Feedback welcome of course !

now babies can save the planet

i know this is a little off topic, because it hasnt appeared in a social report (yet!), but i couldnt resist this article which appeared in the Times which starts like this :

"A scheme to recycle thousands of tonnes of used disposable nappies into everything from tiles to bicycle helmets and, eventually, to extract methane from them to generate energy is about to start. "

It's that methane thing again. First it comes out of cows mouths and now it's about babies backsides. Recycling used nappies, including the plastics, superabsorbent polymers, fibres, cellulose and other materials, now BABIES can save the planet. Isnt that neat? We create a fast-paced, consumer society that excesses in its consumption of consumer products and then we build multi-million $ recycling plants to counter the negative impacts of such consumerism and unsustainable lifestyles. I wonder what the methane-footprint of a four massive recycling plants all over England by 2011 will be ?

But, now moms can feel relaxed about Pamper-ing their toddlers (pun intended) whilst giving them lots of Huggies (another pun intended).

Some facts from the Knowaste UK website:

• In the UK around 8 million disposable nappies are used every day and one baby's disposable nappies fill 40 black sacks in a year
• At least four-and-a-half trees are needed to produce the disposable nappies for one baby Disposable nappies may take up to 500 years to decompose, essentially making them present in our landfills forever
• For every tonne of nappy waste recycled, 400kg of wood, 145 cubic metres of natural gas and 8,700 cubic metres of water is saved

So, next time you wear a motor-cycle helmet, just think whose little peach-like soft silky bottom it was hugging before it became your helmet.

Actually, if we combine the methane-inhibiting plans to reduce cows burping, together with the plans for recyling nappy waste, we could have no-waste non-burbing babies that are both adorable and a credit to the planet. So moms and farmers, get your heads together and reduce and recycle all that methane - just think what a wonderful sustainable world you are creating. Perhaps farmers could also start using disposable nappies for cows. Just think how much recycling material that could create ! wow. The possiblilities are endless. No sh**t!

can cows save the planet ?

hi blog and blog-readers,

been a while since i last posted .... too busy reporting, i guess. Working on two fascinating reports at present, amongst other things... important and exciting work.

In between times, i am reading a good book called Reporting Non-Financials by Kaevan Gazdar.
Kaevan takes us through a multitude of csr reports and companies who report on csr. He maintains that nonfinancial reporting is a way to present the company's true value, much of which is not reflected in the company's annual report. "How can today's value drivers be reflected in corporate reporting ? he asks. There are tremendous insights and relevant guidance for reporters and those who read reports in this book which i thoroughly recommend.

A few more quotes from Keavan which i particularly enjoyed:

"Most companies churn out documentations in the guise of reports; information is given because its available, not because it is important" (page 280)
"The real trade-off for ambitious reporters is between trade-off and detail"(page 73)
As a reporter, i agree that some of the hardest decisions are around what to leave out.

'Printed reporting has the great advantage of forcing a certain basic structure on report producers" (page 281)
As a GRI reporter, I agree that structure is necessary for reporting. A report, by definition, contains all the relevant data and information in one place. Reporting solely on a website, simply by cross-linking to all bits of information relating to csr, may count in terms of transparency but doesn't usually make for a coherent and complete report.

"Reasearch carried out by the HR consultants Watson Wyatt in 16 European countries shows that companies with strong HR management deliver almost twice as much shareholder value as their average competitors"(Page 132)
As a former VP HR, and as a consultant / reporter specialising in reponsible workplace issues, i have seen time and time again the benefits of good HR practices in moving the business forward, and in supporting sustainability.

"Independent verification certainly increases the respectability of the reporting effort"(page 186)
And as an assurer, I couldn't agree more ...

By the way, i am sure you will notice that my selection of quotations is entirely random, with absolutely no connection to my interests or fields of expertise, right ?

So to compensate for all that self-promotion, I will ask you to contemplate the question:

can cows save the planet ?

I read this article (courtesy of Corporate Citizenship media briefing) about Cadbury's (the chocolate company and a super reporter) who are working with 65 famers in the UK to find a way to reduce cows from burping (belching, making impolite noises , you know). Apparently all these burping cows are responsible for a big part of our global warming, in the form of methane emissions. "Contrary to common belief, most gas emerges from their front, not rear ends." By changing the cow's diet, the gases they belch can be sustantially reduced, apparently. (Hmmm, I wonder if this will work with my husband ?!)

Well, in any event, this sounds like truly breakthrough creative thinking in sustainability and i for one look forward to a more sustainable future with burpless cows and belchless bulls.
(I guess if we drank less milk and ate less beef, we could make a similar impact, no ?)

So this got me wondering what Cadbury's will be writing in their next csr report.
Probably something like this:

Cadbury's is committed to saving the planet, and reducing global warming. In order to reduce the negative impacts of our supply chain, we have started to provide a diet to our cows which consists of methane-blech-inhibiting-organic-pasture-farmed-grassland food enriched with fumaric acid and vitamin b3. The result of this is a 48.3% reduction in methane gas burped by cows, which means that for every 200g bar of chocolate consumed by our stakeholders, the negative effect on global warming is reduced by 0.0723%. In an interview with cow farmers, who are fully supportive of this move, we asked if the cows are happy now that they are not belching so much. One farmer replied "We believe our cows are totally appreciative of our efforts to save the planet. Now they can do something constructive instead of just waiting around to be slaughtered for Sunday lunch. "

Perhaps the GRI will develop a reporting indicator for cow-belching reduction?
I hope not.
If i have to assure Cadbury's report, i prefer not to be travelling to UK cow farms counting burps.
Well, if they give me enough Dairy Milk chocolate, i might consider it .....

elaine

Ten Tips for Sustainability Reporting

This is called an indirect impact.

My entry this week is posted not here but on one of my favourite blogs - The Sustainable Marketing Blog - by Peter Korchnak. Here it is! Enjoy Ten Tips for Sustainability Reporting.

Peter blogs about all aspects of sustainable marketing (one of my favourite posts is Word of Mouth Marketing - must read that book!) .

Sustainable marketing is a fascinating field and is of course a very relevant aspect of csr reporting, particularly for compnanies with consumer brands. This includes the way businesses choose to market, advertise and promote their products, which sectors of the population they target and how they reflect them in their marketing campaigns. Social marketing, or cause-related marketing are key elements of a sustainable marketing strategy. And of course the use of social media today has transformed the way companies consider reaching target audiences.

I was just taking a look at the Kellogg first global csr report, just released. They include a section on responsible marketing, and talk about an update to their marketing guidelines which have now prohibits marketing to kids under 12.

A final, and shocking view of irresponsible marketing is the way women are exploited for marketing purposes. Yes, feminist stuff again. but look at this . This represents the exact opposite of corporate social responsibility and sustainable marketing practices. Wonder if these ads appear in CSR reports ? So remember, next time you are tempted to indulge in a little cognac after reading a CSR report, DON'T go for Remy Martin.

Anyway, to round off, thanks to Peter for allowing me to guest-post on the Sustainable Marketing Blog.

Denmark does it ... Apple doesn't

There's always good news and bad news.... that's what happens when TWO headlines come up on your radar.

First .. the good news headline:
"European neighbours and multinationals will be watching closely as Danish government passes legislation requiring firms to produce CSR reports " The law doesn't require the 1,000 largest firms to actually DO anything to advance their CSR practices, but it does require them to report. Isn't that interesting ? It means that all those that have nothing to say, but have to report, will show up as less attractive. Which perhaps will prove the point that reporting is a catalyst for action. If you have to report, you first have to do something to report about. The Danish government says that this is likely to enhance Danist business as an an attractive investment proposition. This is based on the assumption that Danish businesses are very csr-worthy, but they just dont tell people about it. Which is absolutely a key part of social reponsibility - accountability is responsibility plus transparency. Well done Danes.

I took a quick trip to corporate register (CorporateRegister.com) and found that there is quite a good level of reporting in that country. Denmark is ranked 17th with around 500 reports issued since 1992, after US, UK, Japan, Germany, Australia, Italy and others. Some of reports to come out of Denmark include the best integrated reporters Novo Nordisk , Lego and others, unpronouncable for non-Danes.

Now for the BAD news:
Apple's launch of new green products at this week's Macworld show has been overshadowed by the company's attempts to quash shareholder requests for more corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. The Apple company says that producing another report would produce little added value and require time and expense.

It's a good thing they are not based in Denmark, right ?

Pacific sustainability Index - you gotta love it !

Today i came accross something i love... sustainability report rankings. I guess there can't be too many people for whom report rankings just does it ... but for me, they just jump off of my screen and make me stop and take notice.

So i came accross the Pacific Sustainability Index which is run by the Roberts Evironmental Center. The center ranks companies based on their online sustainability reporting information. They have a defined methodology focusing on social, environmental and human rights reporting. And they produce sector reports on a frequent frequency, frequently. Focus on fortune 500 companies. The rankings cover intent, performance and reporting in each section.

The latest batch includes the Electronics, SemiConductor and Peripherals Sectors. 62 pages of really interesting analysis. Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony and Royal Philips Eletronics come in 1,2,3 4 ... yes in that order. Interestingly Panasonic scores very highy on environmental issues but much less so on social issues. But overall is ranked winner.

By now you will have realised that i like to get things first hand - so i took a quick trip to CorporateRegister.com and located the Panasonic 2007 Sustainability report on which most of the PSI analysis was based. On the cover of the report is Panasonic's wearable robotic suit with rubber man-made muscles to help people recover from limb paralysis. What a great thing! Looks quite futuristic. And the eco-friendly washer dryer. They put their "hearts and soul"into developing the heat pump. Soul in a heat pump ? But flippancy aside, this is a really great report. Its packed. The graphics are super with lots of pleasant and informative diagrams. Stakeholders pop up throughout the report, intrude with a question, or criticsm, and receive a reply on the same page. Nice touch. And to top it all, assurance by no other than the impresive Johnathon Porritt.

I think i am going to be a PSI fan. Hope it's not addictive.

Quotes from the reporting conference

What they said at the Ethical Corporation Conference Reporting and communications Summit, London, November 25-26 , 2008


The Ethical Corporation Conference and Reporting Summit (25-26 November 2008, London) was attended by a competent gathering of sustainability professionals, consultants and yes, you've guessed it, me! It's always interesting when people get together to talk about reporting, because the conversation never quite knows whether to focus on the art of reporting or the art of managing and implementing social and environmental responsibility in the business, i.e., the content of the report. When people talk about reporting driving performance, and I heard that many times in the conference, are they talking about the delivery of a social report, or are they talking about the responsible ways in which the company performs in order to be able to report? It's a little confusing for the average bystander, I daresay. Though as a seasoned reporter, I maintain that there is truth to the assertion that reporting is a catalyst for action. The very nature of raising the question: "What have you done about reducing your GHG emissions?" creates an insight that some action is required in that area if the answer is an embarrassing silence.

When it all blows over, how will we be positioned ?
The question was asked of Ernst Ligteringen, the CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative. Ernst maintains that it is more important now than ever before that businesses maintain their social and environmental responsibility efforts. Because when things get back to "normal", (someone will define normal, one day) the underlying issues such as climate change, use of resources, poverty and so on will continue to be high on the agenda. And those businesses who can responsibly deal with those issues will be best positioned.

We haven’t written the last chapter on Social Responsibility
Another quote from Ernst, in response to the question: "Is the GRI a standard or a tool?" Ernst says the GRI continues to evolve and represents work in progress. But to all of the rest of us, it looks like a standard, it feels like a standards, it is used like a standard, and it’s the nearest thing we have to a comprehensive social and environmental reporting standard. So what's the harm in considering it to be a standard? Well, we wouldn’t want to tread on the toes of ISO, who are busy developing their 26,000 standard which should see the light of day sometime this millennium. But that doesn’t promise to add much value over the GRI, in my view.

It's just noise
Speaketh the irreverent Mallen Baker, who has a very specific and rather uncomplimentary view on reporting. In its current form, it's bad, he muses. He compares it to regurgitated messages which are force of habit but have long since lost their meaning and value, like "Stay clear of the doors" when boarding a train. He maintains that the reason and the delivery of the communication have become disconnected. What is the point of reporting, Mallen asketh. What does it tell us about the potential of companies to generate future cash flows? Reports require companies to generate their own context because without context, whatever they write is meaningless. I agree with this point. Mallen ends up saying that the GRI is a wish-list from a bunch of different stakeholders so that when they sit in a committee, so that they can decide what they would like to see. This does not, he says, add real value to the engine of driving change in the business. Ernst rebuts with the assertion that the GRI, when used properly, does provide context and is intended to provide balanced reporting. Some do it well, some less well. Slight advantage for Ernst in this argument, I feel. The GRI structure is, on the whole, positive and does assist in focusing the mind about what is important to consider when reporting.

Longer reports win awards
Pronounceth once again our resident sceptic, Mallen Baker. I disagree. But let's get some data.

Comparability is a myth
Aha. A voice from the crowd. One of the core objectives of the GRI framework is to provide comparability – a way of benchmarking businesses against different indicators. Anyone who has tried to do this, and I have, quickly finds that there is very little that is directly comparable because, although the indicators are mostly specific, the answers are mostly selectively narrow or obtusely broad. For the time being, comparability is only marginally possible.

Marketeers are not interested. CSR teams need to build the bridges
I forgot to note who said this. So apologies for lack of credit. And yes, most marketing teams are conspicuously not involved in CSR efforts, and many are not even consulted in CSR reporting efforts. They may provide data for the report, but they are not a core member of reporting teams. This is an indication of the lack of integration of CSR strategy in business strategy which drives marketing strategy. Who can change this? Not the CSR teams. The leadership teams. Who more often than not contain marketers but not CSR people. Chicken and egg stuff, right?

We identified 130 material issues and we reported on 8
Olaf Brugman, Senior Manager in the CSR Division at Rabobank, describes their approach to materiality. It takes a lot of self-restraint (or in some cases, reflief!) to select a small number of most material issues and report in depth only on those. But this is the thing to do. Well done to Rabobank.

Too much information in a non-structured way is non-information
Ursula Mather, VP environment and sustainabilty at Bayer. An impressive approach by Bayer to CSR and to reporting, with focus on material issues. A key watch-out when reporting is to ensure you don’t engage in telling everything you have in the interests of transparency. You have to tell what's material.

Every word was assured
Hilary Parsons, head of Corporate Affairs , describes the 15 month long assurance process of Bureau Veritas for the Nestle "Creating Shared Value" Report. Every sentence was anlysed to ensure there is proof. Hilary believes Nestle gained true credibility value from this rigorous assurance process.

If you could ask Coca Cola any question, what would it be ?
Jo Franses of Coca Cola UK talked about the innovative "Let's get together " approach to interactive stakeholder engagement and the new platform for delivering open and honest conversation about the brand. Since May 2008, 4,000 questions were posted, 900 unique answers were supplied and over 100,000 have visited the site. Sounds suspiciously like good practice to me.

Mouse-over glossary
Stiaan Wandrag of Sasol cited this as an innovative approach to on-line reporting. And, it might not sound much, but it's actually quite a good thing. Every time they use an acronym a little window pops up with the full monty. I just checked it out. It works. I mean, who carries in their head GTL, CTL, UNFCCC, CCS, BEE, GEC, OHSAS… I could go on. I mean, do they talk like that at SASOL ? But, good for us people who get frustrated having to look things up every five minutes.

Our culture is performance driven, values led
This may not sound original but it is a neat and punchy way to describe the Cadbury philosophy which incorporates some wonderfully refreshing work on CSR and reporting, led by the impressive Allison Ward. ( I am not repeat NOT saying this because Cadbury handed out thick slabs of dairy chocolate at the conference). The Cadbury report is focused, clear , interesting and geared to different level of stakeholder competence and interest. dearcadbury.com is well worth a visit – it's quite an inspired approach to reporting. Allison says: Even the glossiest of websites is not relevant without content. So from Eco Eggs to considering the possibility of making biofuels from chocolate waste (I think that was a joke!), I make a vow of eternal loyalty to Cadbury. Guess I will just have to eat more chocolate … that’s going to be really tough….

You can tell about how serious a company is about CSR depending on who has accountability for the CSR function in the business
I attribute this to Charlotte Grezo, former head of sustainability at Lehman. This is a good point. Someone has to manage sustainability just as someone has to manage everything else that is important in the business. Those companies who just let CSR stroll in and out of the different functions in the business without direct accountability cannot truly hope to leverage csr opportunities in an optimal way. Investors are not interested in straightforward philanthropy. Charlotte said this too. Investors want to see some meaningful use of community investment that creates new value. Not just giving charity. I think most businesses understand this these days, no?

Integrated reporting helps drive internal alignment
Another impressive lady of Cr, Susan Blesener of Novo Nordisk, described the Novo Nordisk approach to integrated reporting in an clear and enlightening way. I haven’t been a fan of integrated reporting but I was impressed by the Novo Nordisk presentation and could see the value of ensuring comprehensive alignment of all business and sustainability messages in one mindset and one report.

The truth is … everything is connected
Jo Confino of the Guardian profoundly confirms that if the business is not understanding the complexity of all its connections, it is going to go nowhere. He advocates looking at the true purpose of reporting and not just get into the routine of reporting and lose the unique value it can bring. Makes sense, I guess.

Reporting is giving way to communication – these are not the same things.
Mark Weintraub. Shell. Bingo. Well, whoever said they were the same things. Reporting is just one part of a comprehensive communications strategy. Whoever thinks they can produce a report and then shut up has obviously not got it. I am comforted that Shell has.
Mark says that there is a search for simpler, clear and cheaper ways for reporting. And here I will agree. There comes a point where reporting becomes over complex and defeats its objective. Back to Cadbury?

Lawyers in the other company allowed them to do it already
Mark Weintraub again, on the question of to what extent they scrutinize other companies in the same sector as part of their report preparation. If other companies have reported, and their lawyers have allowed them to do it !, then it appears that Shell management would also be convinced to make similar disclosures. I suspect the competitiveness in reporting drives many companies to look for reassurance and also the opportunity for a competitive edge amongst peers. This is a good thing.

There was a trickle-down effect
Andrea Smith on the Carbon Disclosure Project on Supply Chain Reporting. Great Project. Questions to suppliers trickled down to their suppliers and so on. The driving of responsibility through the supply chain – a great example of making things happen differently. The change driven by the CDP ( mouse- over please, Sasol) is quite impressive.

Now ICT is the sound byte of the month
Penny Shepherd of UKSIF on the apparently sudden emergence of a host of sustainability issues in the ICT sector. She's right. It's there. Don’t let peer pressure pass you by, if you are an ICT company, better get on the train.

Reporting is like a Russian doll
Andrew Wilson, MD of that great company, Corporate Citizenship. He is referring to a Babushka doll. You know, you keep opening it up and there's another doll inside, smaller. And another and another …. Andrew was expressing his view that reporting has to be global AND local, and that she shape and form should be the same but the content should be made relevant at local level by a country or regional focus or an issues focus relative to local priorities. I wish more globals would get this. A global report may be right for analysts but it misses most of the local stakeholders. Fortunately, there are many companies reporting today at both levels.


200 indicators per country
Sofia Fernandez described how Telefonica manages global reporting and local reporting. Whilst there is scope for each local operation to report in its own way, each is required to contribute to the global picture and the local CFO's are the ones charged with making sure that each local subsidiary delivers data on a number of agreed global indices. Good approach. Babushka.

This was a good conference.
Guess who said that ? Got it. Me again. I enjoyed the conference. On the whole. It did provide an opportunity to hear good practice from around the world, and talk to those responsible for it. I would have welcomed a little more focus on some of the reporting skills and innovations, but broadly, there were lots of opportunity for insight and the quotes about are merely a small selection of the various issues that arose.